Roaring
by Galecia
Summary: Prequel to "Upon Command". The glass he spied the world through had cracked, had fallen into that Void with him. It being no longer there to protect him, his mind followed suit, waning and ebbing with each new thought not his by nature. Theirs. Loki never believed he would survive, nor did he want to. Canon pairings. All Avengers and added surprise characters. Rated M for language.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So due to request, here is the "prequel" to my other chapter fic. The prologue is word-for-word the piece from the other chapter in Upon Command when Thor approached the Avengers with Loki in tow. I'm adding it so you don't need to go searching for it in the other fic.**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel. Wish I owned Loki, though.**

* * *

_Prologue_

"How drunk was I last night?" Stark was really worried he was seeing things, that he was going crazy. The crazy bit was that he hadn't immediately run for his Iron Man suit or told JARVIS to call in Fury, the Army and Navy and possibly Rhodey who had War Machine.

When was this fucking god going to stop trying to break into his tower?

The only reason, illogical as it was, Tony didn't do all of those things and much, much more was because Thor stood there with a hand out in plea.

"Man of Iron, I can explain."

"Do it quick because the Other Guy doesn't like this." Bruce Banner had dropped the glass of expensive scotch he'd been swirling, the liquid still rolling down the steps from the raised bar towards the couch. Tony could see the greenish hue to his ears and decided to step up and stop stuttering.

"Okay buddy, uh… can you tie him up outside?" His eyes roamed over the very real, non-hallucinated Loki fucking Odinson standing ramrod straight beside his brother in the middle of the lounge, in front of the window he smashed with Starks body. Tony was a little impressed Loki kept his cool glare on Thor and not the entire group of Avengers standing ready to defend themselves against attack. They were just about to leave to their respective rooms having finished a rather enjoyable dinner, the remnants of takeout containers still scattered on various surfaces. The team hadn't seen each other in two weeks, all having different missions to occupy them and Stark rebuilding his Malibu mansion after the attack by the Mandarin a few months prior. The general relaxed atmosphere was quickly charged with electricity - literally- as Thor and another man had shot from the sky only moments before, shocking them all.

Only their trust in Thor stopped them from shooting first and asking later.

Thor spoke in a language so beautiful and unfamiliar it must have been Norse, because two seconds later Loki vanished only to reappear, sitting Indian style, on the StarkPad.

"Good boy," Tony taunted loud enough he knew the trickster would hear.

No rejoinder came.

Natasha and Clint stood behind the couch, too uncomfortable to sit, both their eyes furiously trained on Loki's back. Tony was relieved it was pitch black outside, no stars or moon to shine behind the clouds, because it had only been a year since Loki attacked New York and no doubt some people might recognize him even without his war regalia.

Tony guessed calling him Reindeer Games wouldn't fit now. The god was dressed in a plain black shirt and pants, loose against his wiry frame and his sallow eyes seemed darker than they should be. His piercing glare was still unnerving. He must have felt Tony's eyes on his back for Loki turned his face sideways, and then looked away.

Thor's commanding voice had all their attention. "My brother has served his time on Asgard according to our laws. The Allfather has decided an exile on Midgard would further teach Loki about the misgivings he had of Earth. This is…" he tried searching for the word Jane had used, "Probation."

"They don't trust he'll behave in prison on Asgard?" Steve asked, arms tense and ready to punch Loki in the face. Tony recognized Steve's 'I want to deck him' face usually reserved for evil-doers. It made the billionaire a little proud.

None of them were prepared for the strong warrior, the god, to have a voice filled with so much emotional pain. "They do not want him." Thor raised his head, looking at a spot on the glass coffee table. "I could not leave him to suffer alone like before."

"Before?" Natasha finally peeled her eyes away from the god enough to stare hard at Thor.

"He fell from the Bifrost, into the Void, the Chitauri found him… they are evil creatures, and their evil infected my brother for too long a time."

"'Freedom is life's great lie. Once you accept that in your heart, you will know peace.'" Clint muttered, immediately getting Thor's attention but it was Natasha who asked, "Clint?" A hand on his arm gently.

"It's what he said, Loki," The name tasted sour on his tongue, "when he came through the Tesseract in SHIELD, he said it to Fury."

Thor nodded solemnly. "As Jane said, they 'brainwashed' my brother into believing something he would have not believed himself. He was never… cruel."

"They did to Loki what he did to Clint and Selvig?" Natasha outright asked.

"Yes."

"And daddy dearest knows this? So why isn't Loki living large in the palace?"

"Our father is of a stubborn mind. Loki committed crimes against the realms which cannot go unpunished. Exile is one of the more tame sentences that was entertained." He said it with such disgust none of them wanted to know what those 'other sentences' were.

Banner finally spoke up from behind them, having regained full control once he'd heard Thor's words. "So, why bring him here? Why not have keep with you in New Mexico?"

"The Allfather does not want war with Earth, and so only agreed to this exile under the conditions Loki be under the supervision of the warriors who defeated the Chitauri." And Loki; but that goes unsaid, for they are all aware said war criminal is sulking outside on the balcony within hearing distance. Thor was clearly choosing his words carefully. "We on Asgard were witness to the after-effects of the Chitauri's control. We saw enough to believe my brother was not himself during his madness."

The weight of his words hung heavy and no one spoke against them. The haunting look in Thor's eyes when he turned to see Loki still sitting on the balcony was enough to even shut Clint's harsh words out.

"We are asking for sanctuary. I," Thor turned to look at them all in turn, "am asking on behalf of Asgard for your help."

"You're part of this team, Thor," Steve sighed, "and our friend. Of course we will help."

"Uh, Cap are you forgetting this is my home I'm allowing you to live in?"

"I thought your home was in Malibu, you rebuilt it better than it was!"

"The lab isn't done so it's not really home."

"Tony-"

They fell into bickering, but Bruce clapped Thor on the shoulder and gave him a certain look that was clear; they were welcome to stay.

* * *

_Caged No Longer_

Loki was as familiar with the stars circling Midgard as any other realm. His eyes never left them for long, focused on their never waning beauty while trying to ignore the squabbling over his and Thor's situation drifting from the Tower behind him.

The stars never lost their beautiful luster no matter the eyes that beheld them, a value Loki found nowhere else. In all realms, the heavens and constellations were guides for the forsaken, not losing their beauty as they shone brightly in return.

Loki could not say the same for others who looked upon him in recent times. Every eye and stare directed to him, kind or not, held some sort of grudge or wish of ill-will. Loki could not bring himself to blame them- he had been the perpetrator of war, the criminal rising against his own household. Even if it had not been entirely his fault, he was still present and taking action against three separate realms came with consequence.

He felt a certain amount of guilt for what he had done, but apparently not enough for the All-father not to send him to Midgard with his oaf of a brother.

_**No, Thor is only doing his duty. This is not entirely his fault. **_Loki inhaled the dense night air and calmed his mind in time to hear said oaf approaching with a companion.

"Brother, friend Stark has agreed to let us take refuge here."

Loki looked at them from the corner of his eye before returning attention to the darkening sky and building lights of the city around them. Not much sound reached them up there, the dry summer evening blotting it out with heavy smog think enough to blur the car lights below.

"What of the others?"

Bruce did not dwell on the possible reasons the gods voice was not smooth and controlled like the last time he had been to Earth. It was cracked, the chords rusty as if speech had only been possible in the last few days. To answer his question, Bruce cleared his throat self-consciously. "We're fine with it, Loki. Your bother told us what we needed to know."

Acutely aware the rest of the Avengers were spectators to this conversation from the lounge room, Loki stood slowly and with one last glance over the edge to the hazy lights below, he turned to face Thor.

A long moment passed and he could see it in Thor's eyes. What this sanctuary would entail, what the Man of Iron's conditions really were. "I am to be caged again." Loki waited for the tell-tale twitch in Thor's face, the one that pulled at his mouth but it remained stone. _**It seems he has learnt something from me, if for better or worse, there's no telling**_. Loki equally schooled his features even though he was aware his voice had already given Banner what the scientist was waiting for, a show of weakness, a sign that Loki could not exercise any power even over himself.

Bruce wouldn't tell anyone Loki sounded frightened, or his eyes searched desperately to see a lie in his brother's too-honest face. Bruce shook his head, "Not a cage. A secure room. You'll be able to leave with supervision." He added, "It won't be for long." hoping it really wouldn't be. Even in Loki's company a few minutes, there was no overwhelming feeling of crazy Bruce remembered from a year ago. This man was different, freer even, despite the air of controlled rebellion hanging around him. Some of the innocence Thor often spoke of had returned to Loki's expressive eyes, making him look younger in the face of his sadness and reluctance to trust the Avengers.

Yes, the mistrust was evident in the way Loki would not make eye contact with the Dr. Jekel side of the green monster which had been his final downfall.

"I will do what you ask, Banner." Loki stiffly nodded as if to take lead into the Tower, but waited for Thor to turn and begin walking. Bruce could see that Clint and Natasha were missing from the group, and Pepper had joined them.

Thor beamed. "Lady Pepper, a pleasure as always."

Pepper grinned at Thor; she really had developed a soft spot for them all, especially for Thor and his Asgardian ways. "Thor, I'm glad to see you too."

Tony sighed dramatically, coming around the bar with a new scotch for Bruce and himself. After handing over Bruce's, Tony motioned for the brothers to follow. "I have your room ready and waiting, turn down service not offered."

Loki did not know what Stark meant, but had no choice to follow the man through the elegant halls towards the elevator. As they walked by the others, Loki couldn't help but notice how Steve was eyeing his unchained hands, Lady Pepper and Banner paying them no further mind and distancing themselves across the room to carry on a hushed conversation.

They descended down below the lobby, and that is when Thor became anxious, "Stark, a word of caution. Loki has been in solitary confinement for quite some time. I do not know if another secluded prison cell would benefit him." It was barely a whisper. Loki kept his eyes transfixed on the illuminated numbers above the doors counting down the floors.

"It's one of _my_ basements, Point Break. It will feel like home."

_**I don't have one anymore, a home. I never did.**_ Loki keeps himself from saying it, because Thor is giving him a wounded look like he had read his brothers mind. Thor understands how Loki had felt before falling into the comforting illusion of the Chitauri, how he never felt he belonged, a little late to realize but Loki cannot discount the fact that Thor has always cared and it was Loki whom ignored the brotherly affection.

Thor cannot argue on the point of not belonging in Asgard anymore. Not after hearing Odin's verdict on his once-son even after the evidence proved in some parts Loki was not of his own mind since the Void. Thor had taken it upon himself to vouch for Loki, volunteering in front of the entire Council and the court to go with Loki to Midgard. Odin believed he was there to delegate and convince the Avengers not to be cruel. Cruelty wasn't in their nature, exempting the Widow and Hawk, so that had never been Thor's worry.

Since birth, Thor's worry had always been Loki. The Mischeif God saw that in his brother's eyes once he had turned his back to Odin's throne and commanded the guards to unchain him.

The elevator dinged, doors smoothly opening to revel a short hallway with frosted glass at one end. Tony lead them, walked up to the glass and set his palm flat against an invisible panel. The glaze melted away into crystal clarity, thin window panes making up the entire wall. Beyond was a room with a large bed, a couch and what Loki remembered, a television set. There was a door to the rooms' left, which Tony was blabbering about was an en suite as he led them in.

"Oh, and since we don't want that mind of yours getting bored… bad things seem to happen when that happens," Tony fiddled with a remote he'd picked up off the immaculate bed. "Push this here green button, and that fake window lights up with whatever scene you want it to. Ask JARVIS for whatever outdoor things you're into. If you're a nice little god, he'll make up programs for you."

Loki fixed his eyes on the blank space of white plastered wall Stark had pointed to, going so far as to crossing to it, putting his fingers on it. Nothing happened.

Tony did not want to stay longer than necessary- yes he agreed to house Thor's oddball of a brother but that was it- he was not responsible for entertainment.

"Thor, buddy, does SHIELD know about your pop's plan to have us keep Loki?" Tony asked once they were outside the glass and Loki had finally given in and had taken up the remote, going through example scenes for the holographic window. Thor's hand was currently pressed against the window while JARVIS uploaded in the Asgardian's DNA signature. Tony, Thor and Bruce were the only authorized personnel to unlock Loki's "cage" for the time being.

"My father sent them word, yes."

"Yeah, okay, good."

"Stark," Thor said knowingly, "I realize this is much to ask, but there was no other choice. If Loki were to have stayed in Asgard and had I not brought him here… he would have been sent to Jotunheim or a worse fate."

"He looks less crazy, I can see it. Proof enough for me." Tony wasn't very convincing, either because Loki had just worked out how to use the remote to also turn the television on (it had taken Steve a week to figure that out universal remotes) or because this was a very bad idea.

A combination of the two seemed the more logical idea.

"_Thor Odinson's signature uploaded and calibrated, Sir."_ The accented JARVIS trilled, breaking both men's looks away from the god caged behind glass. Loki looked out of place, wearing the minimalist black leather and wool tunic belted at his waist, long hair hanging frantic around a blank, pale face. Among all the shining chrome and royal red bed-sheets, the richness of the Persian rug beneath his bare feet and the black leather couch Loki was now examining, Tony felt a pang of guilt.

Loki looked worse than when the Hulk smashed him into the floor, gaunt and haunted even with that intrigued quirk to his lips while he examined things in the room. No regality, no pomp of a title hanging around him, nothing. He looked just a man out of place, almost human.

On a whim, Tony hit the panel so that the glass became one-way, blocking them out and any words that would follow.

Loki hadn't noticed, so Tony made it quick. "Thor," His voice was oddly formal; none of the playful spirit Thor thought was ever-present. "What exactly happened to your brother?" Tony wasn't leaving until he got answers. He needed them, either to be alright with the situation or because he wouldn't be able to sleep that night unless he knew. Tony Stark knew the look of psychological trauma, no matter how well hidden it was, not even if the lie smith wanted to hide it.

Thor folded his arms across his chest, staring down at Tony, evaluating. "I am sorry Stark;_ I_ do not even know the extent of the damage the Chitauri dealt my brother. He did not return to himself easily."

"Not what I asked. What happened to Loki on _Asgard_? Because that in there is not the brother you knew from eons ago or however long you guys live. He may not be crazy mad anymore, but he's also not back to normal."

Thor glanced to his brother just as Tony removed the veil making the glass one-way, it became clear as air again. Loki still fiddled with the remote, but the god must have guessed something was wrong.

Thor met Loki's eyes, and Tony was momentarily stunned.

The younger god's eyes hungrily searched for something in Thor's, like a child looking for an awaited punishment.

* * *

He needed _rest_. For his tumultuous mind to shut off for a few hours and not replay the Allfathers damning words.

_**Which ones? There have been many.**_

Too many. As many as the buttons on Stark's remote control device, many more than Loki dared to count even though he had gone over them _all_.

Still it mattered not. His mind had left long ago, and only bits and pieces returned, in the wrong order, the wrong sequence and it was maddening. Memories were not in the correct order, they resurfaced at the wrong times, and Loki had no magic to suppress their hold on him or any emotions swelling up at their presence.

He felt like a child coming down from a tantrum and not remembering why he had been angry.

He knew, at some level why everything coalesced and how events played out from accounts from not only Thor, but Odin himself.

Loki remembered the void- oh how he wish he didn't- and the events previous that led him to letting go. _**Yes I was the one who let go. Thor did not release me. Thor… grieved. **_The words were as foreign in his mind as they would be on his tongue. Like acid they drenched his senses in the memories of loyalty and the courage it took not only for Thor to go against Odin's wishes but to demand his own in their stead. For Thor to demand exile and not the _other_ alternative had been a step in the right direction, it had caught Loki's in more ways than just surprise to hear Thor's words ring out in the packed halls of Asgard during his trial.

For the first time in a very long while, Thor protected him, and did not leave Loki to defend himself.

Loki had the urge to sit and think upon what to be done next, but the way to redemption was fickle, and he knew it would be long before he even forgave himself for being so weak. He and Thor were raised to be Warriors, strong princes of Asgard. In the wake of resentment and loneliness he had left his mind vulnerable to the Chitauri's persuasion, and had fallen prone to it so easily that at first he had thought it was his own idea to rule Asgard.

_**I never did want to rule. **_

His next steps were unclear, and so Loki resigned himself to sit upon the soft bed and wait. After all, he had been waiting a year to be cured of his madness, what was a few more to a god who lived thousands of years?

As Thor said, recovery would take time. Loki for once wanted to believe his eldest brother, _**yes, he is my brother, just not by blood. **_"He _is_ my brother."

Those words tasted of acid too.

* * *

"He needs a medical exam."

"That's exactly why I gave you clearance to be in there."

"I mean a real examination. Think Cassie would do it?"

"I think Cassie would run screaming from the room."

"Give her some credit, Tony. She's dealt with worse."

"Defending your girlfriend, Cap?"

"Boys, knock it off." The elevator doors opened and Natasha had come in, hair wet from a shower and clothed in jeans what Tony thought to be on of Clint's black sweaters. "I think Cassie can handle Loki, especially if Thor and Fury believe he's harmless now."

"Not harmless, domesticated." Tony pointed out on his way to call the Cassie Williams down from the floor of Stark Tower that housed the medical wing. Williams had been assigned specifically to the avengers when it was apparent they got injured on every mission they went on. Cassie stayed at the tower some nights, it just so happened that on the night Thor brought his vagrant little brother Cassie hadn't left for the weekend yet.

"Hey, JARVIS, inform the doc that she's needed and to stay here tonight." Tony headed for the elevator and grabbed the rest of them on the way. While descending, JARVIS replied with a direct connection to the medical R&amp;D floor.

Her voice had a southern lilt, having grown up in Alabama, but New York life had been weeding it out slowly over the years. It rang through the elevator compartment, and Tony caught the Cap's small smile. "_Stark, if you ripped your stitches again so help me God. What's the problem?_"

"We have a patient for you. I'll send Rogers and Banner up to explain."

They all heard her sigh, but pleasantly reply, "_Okay, what are the patients injuries_?"

Thor had been quiet since then, going along with what Stark was planning. Thor trusted his friends, and they seemed expert in the realm of Midgardian medicine. Thor did not want to discuss the fact no one on Asgard had thought to check a war criminal for injuries- and Thor could not help but be grateful that his friends had thought of it. The mercy of humans always baffled Thor, and he preferred to think that perhaps Asgard could learn much from them.

"We actually don't know." Stark happily informed her, and exited the elevator with Thor and Natasha while Bruce and Steve remained, heading back up. The doors closed, cutting off Bruce's voice talking to Cassie.

Natasha stayed standing near the elevator, her gun concealed in the back of her jeans under the heavy sweater. Tony changed the glass separating the hall from Loki's room from frosted to clear, and let Thor do the speaking once they were in the room.

* * *

Loki hadn't looked up, but then again there was no need. He had sensed Thor's presence as soon as he had gotten off the elevator. "Loki."

"Thor. Are you going to check on me every hour now?"

Tony averted his gaze when Loki looked to him; looking for the reason he had accompanied his brother. When it seemed he could not figure it out, Loki gestured for Thor to ask what he wanted.

"There is a Midgardian physician who wants to check you for injuries."

"All my injuries have healed by now, I assure you."

_**That was way too fast, Rudolph. **_Fast enough for Tony's eyes to narrow in suspicion, but Loki paid him no mind, his gaze locked with Thor's as if to challenge him to call Loki on his lie. That was what caught Tony off guard, not that Loki was lying but that _he could tell it was a lie._

Tony looked to Thor to see is he had caught it, and by the look on the thunder gods face he had. Then again, they had grown up together so it wasn't so surprising Thor could sense such a weak falsehood.

"Loki, it is for SHIELDs assurance. They mean you no harm."

Now Thor was lying, and both Tony and Loki knew SHIELD didn't care if Loki was injured.

It spoke volumes to Tony that Loki did not scowl or begin a tirade like he would have a year ago. Instead, Loki stood from where he'd been sitting on the bed, and without making eye contact righted his clothing to wait patiently for Thor to lead the way.

She had to sit down before she fell to the floor. "Excuse me?" Cassie asked for the second time and still receiving impish grins at her reaction, she reiterated with a forceful tone, "You're telling me Loki, the guy who not a year ago destroyed half of the city, is in Stark's basement and is on his way up to be examined?"

Bruce tried not to outright laugh at her affronted reaction as if they'd presented her a dead rat. "Yes."

Steve closed his eyes for a brief moment, taking the chair beside Cassie. "We'll be in the next room. Thor will be _in the room_. Loki won't hurt you."

Cassie shot out of her chair, "Getting hurt is not my worry, Rogers. I am worried that he's going to go tyrannical again and kill more people!" She stared at her bag for a minute, cursing herself that had she left early like she'd meant to, taking her work home that night, she wouldn't be about to face the god of lies from another planet.

No, she just had to pull extra hours. "Fine."

There was no way she could get out of it anyway. If Loki was staying in Stark Tower, she had to make sure he checked out. Not only to keep her job and Fury happy, but to make sure Loki posed no threat to the Avengers. She wanted to delay their injuries and her workload as much as possible. Perhaps having another powerful god on Earth's side would do some good.

"How bad is he hurt?" Cassie tied her hair up in a ponytail and began prepping the examination room off the side of one of the glassed-in labs. She began stock piling bandages and antiseptic wipes expecting physical injury.

"Nothing we can see, there might be internal injuries. Something tells me Asgard wasn't kind to him. Thor tells us he isn't exactly wanted. "

Perhaps it wasn't only physical wounds she would be treating. Cassie blinked away the uncertain feeling coiling in her gut. "Wasn't that the reason he went against everyone? Because they weren't kind?" The last part was whispered, as if saying them aloud would summon the god who had been tuned into unkind words since childhood. If they went by what Thor recounted, there was too much damage a group of heroes and their doctor would cure.

Steve whistled his agreement, and got Bruce to help him start up the MRI and x-ray machines while Cassie went to grab one of the white gowns from the supply closet and a box of gloves.

Just as Cassie and Bruce were discussing Jotun anatomy, the elevator door beeped and opened, with Loki the last to get off.

Cassie put on her bravest face and offered him a small smile, hoping her face didn't betray the sad regret she suddenly felt for Loki's situation. "Loki, it's nice to meet you. Would you follow me?" She glanced at Thor and he nodded, also walking with them to the examination room and closing the door.

Steve sat on a stool, not even pretending he understood half the instruments Bruce began inspecting on a lab bench behind him.

The elevator beeped, announcing Clint's entry to the floor. "Fury says we have full responsibility for Thor's brother. He's our burden and all of that." Grabbing what looked like a steel clamp and tossing it back on the table, the archer took a seat beside Steve only to realize the gods we nowhere to be found. "Where's dumb and dumber?"

Tony gestured to the closed door on the other side of the room. "With Cassie, must be going well for it to be so quiet."

No sooner had the words met air did they hear something clang against the inner wall of the exam room and the door open to admit a swiftly walking Cassie hardly keeping a grin from her face.

She skidded into the room and turned in time to see Thor follow, shutting the door on something else hitting it from the other side.

"You jinx everything, Tony." Clint couldn't say it surprised him, it was only a matter of time before Thor's little brother toppled the tower of sanity he seemed to have been holding onto like one would a distant friend.

Steve had stood up when he saw Cassie flee the room. "You alright?" His eyes travelled between Thor and the doctor.

Cassie let herself smile. "Fine, yes. He didn't like me listening to his heart." She was holding a broken stethoscope. "He also flung a bedpan."

Thor obviously didn't understand why everyone chuckled at that; his only concern was Loki being upset. "He does not like his personal space invaded." Was his explanation and even his scowl showed Loki's childlike reaction was not to be permitted. "I will speak with him. He shall apologize." With those famous last words, Thor re-entered the room.

The gathered heroes listened to silence, and then some shouting in a language that must have been Norse.

Tony walked over to the elevator. "I have an idea. Give me a sec." and left.

"He's not coming back." Natasha answered Clint's unspoken question.

"I wouldn't either," Cassie took a seat beside Steve to wait for the arguing brothers to cease. However long that would take.

* * *

"May I?" Pepper knocked on the door, one hand holding a tray with coffee and muffins, the smells drifting in ahead. After getting a confirming nod, she came in and set the tray on Cassie's desk. "Bruce said you've been up here all night."

It was clear Bruce hadn't been exaggerating. The doctor's usually kempt hair had strands falling into her face from the ponytail and her makeup smudged a bit in the corner of her eye. Not only did Pepper notice she looked ragged but unhappy. Cassie was no stranger to staying up all night and day and working at the Tower and for SHIELD so for the girl to look so beaten concerned Pepper.

Cassie saw that in the woman's face and said outright, "We should have given up insisting Loki let us scan him." She shifted over so Pepper could bend down and look at the screen displaying a variety of x-ray images. Even one not knowledgeable in medicine could see that Loki's bones were severely damaged, most places cracked or healed incorrect after improper treatment. Pepper could not put to words what it made her think, the tortures Loki's own people had put him through, and she had to remember not all of them came from Asgard, but the Chitauri.

Pepper gave Cassie a sad smile, straightening up and checking her watch. "I may not be able to heal him like you could, and of course you'll be getting right on that, but he needs to feel safe here and I think there's been enough of Loki being locked in cages."

Pepper took her coffee off the tray and walked out but not before telling the doctor to go home and sleep, "You've done more than enough tonight."

Cassie shut down her computer, laying her head on the desk and closing her eyes to the morning sunlight coming in through the tinted windows. She did not know where to begin healing Loki, and she did not know if telling Thor would benefit or hinder progress made on Loki's part.

It was clear that the haunted look in Thor's eyes did not come from knowing what physical pain had brought Loki to surrender under the Chitauri but the mental anguish of knowing how he had played a part in this.

Cassie did not want to get in the middle of any of it.

She began hoping Pepper was not foolish in thinking she could make the god feel safe when for the past years all he had felt was betrayal and pain.

* * *

**A/N: Let me know what you think! G. **

**Updates will be (I promise I have half this story written already) every Friday afternoon/night.**


	2. Similarities

**A/N: So this story IS Loki and Thor centric, but it's also about how the Avengers handle having the god of mischief among them. Viewpoints will shift.**

**Disclaimer: I will never own Marvel. I only have some of the comics.**

* * *

_Similarities_

_Her face was the same unassailable mask that he had found her fighting skills to be- determined but not solely hers. Clint continued to watch the woman Director Fury referred to as Black Widow be escorted to a holding cell by some stone faced agent._

_She was compact although her personality was distinct and too big for her body, the face of impassion was a well disguise if anyone except Clint was looking at her. He had seen her true face, one of pragmatic sadness so overwhelmed by what had happened that he had caught her off guard in that alley, and as unlikely Clint second-guessed his orders from SHIELD to take the girl out._

_He decided not to fire._

_Beginning to think it was a mistake- that there was no trace of that woman he had found in the alley and that redheaded girl been replaced by hard copy of something he didn't think was human- Clint felt something brush his shoulder._

_Agent Coulson had sidled up to him in the corner of the hall, just in time to see the stone faced agent close the cell door on Black Widow. She had not looked up, her waves of red hair curtaining her face like a window which looked out to nothing._

_Coulson sighed lightly, maybe waiting for Clint to say something, the man didn't know. Eventually once other agents began passing them by and it seemed Barton was not moving his eyes away from the steel door across the hall, Coulson spoke, "You disobeyed direct orders. Any reason?" _

_What Barton admired about Coulson was his light demeanor, the way his words were soft but could not be mistaken for weakness. Being Clint's handler this reflected badly on Coulson too. _

_Clint knew his reasons wouldn't matter in the end- SHIELD was the deciding force. "I made a different call."_

_Phil flipped open a folder, and from what Clint saw it was on Black Widow with statements he had made to Fury on why he arrived at the drop location with the target meant to be in a body bag. "Yes, why?"_

_"She's a kid, Coulson. What is she, seventeen? Eighteen? Do we even know? She deserves the same second chance we all get." Clint tried pushing past, half out of annoyance that Coulson kept looking at him expectantly and half because it had been a long flight back from Moscow and he had no illusions that his clothes reeked. _

_Phil put a hand on his arm, sidestepping him into an empty office devoid of any furniture, just he glaring fluorescent lights and gray carpet that seemed to cover every inch of Headquarters. _

_"What did you see in that alley, Barton? She doesn't look like a scared kid to me."_

**No, she looks deadly. **

His eyes opened quickly, heavy breathing he barely recognized as his own echoed lightly through the room as he became fully aware where he had fallen asleep. In the arms of the deadliest woman he had ever known, who at that moment was turned away from him on her side, sheets up to her shoulders and sleeping rather soundly.

Clint Barton got up slow, keeping in mind that the last time he had startled her awake she almost took the lamp out with a knife produced from under her pillow.

That had been a long time ago, almost as long ago as the events in his dream.

**_I haven't thought about that night for years. Why now?_**

Shoving his feet into his sneakers and grabbing the sweater hanging off the desk chair, Clint went into the hall of their floor. Stark had given them separate bedrooms on the same floor, a waste, when they usually slept in the same bed when they could afford it.

It took Clint the walk down to the kitchen to remember why he and Natasha were both at the Tower and the events of the previous night.

**_Loki._**

Thinking about the guy still gave Clint an instant headache in the wake of his stomach dropping to the floor. Luckily the only one awake that early in the morning was Tony's girlfriend and CEO of Stark Industries, Pepper Potts. Clint always found her at the island counter with a coffee this time of the morning, but today she was nowhere to be found.

Ignoring how odd that was, because the woman was never late and rarely took sick or vacation days, he continued to the fridge.

His exhaustion hadn't begun to be scared away by the rising sun before he heard Thor come in behind him before seeing the god. As always, Thor's habit of announcing himself by _being_ himself meant there could be no surprises. Unless he was determined to sneak up on you, in that regard Thor could best Natasha at times.

"Friend Barton,"

**_Something's wrong, _**Clint thought before turning to see that indeed, Thor did not look his usual jovial self and it perfectly matched the dead tone he had spoken with. "Mornin' buddy." The archer said carefully, afraid that the listless way Thor sat at the kitchen table dressed in only his plain shirt and pants that could soon change like a hormonal teenager.

Clint was saved from asking what had Thor's princess hair in a knot as the elevator doors opened again to deliver hell frozen over- Tony and Pepper in the middle of a whispered fight.

"No," Tony shrugged and came in, not even saying good morning on his way up the staircase to the penthouse above.

Pepper swore for the first time Clint had ever heard.

"Something wrong in paradise, Miss Potts?" Clint retrieved her favourite mug from the cupboard in a show of apology and camaraderie, for he felt bad that Tony's strong opinions on whatever they'd been discussing had put that blush of embarrassment on her cheeks. Pepper disliked fighting in front of other people; apparently she had expected no one to be up so early.

"Thank you Clint," Pepper took a sip of the coffee he had poured in her cup before recounting the spat. "I was trying to get Tony to put Loki in a more comfortable room. I do not like the idea of locking him up, it was made very clear he is not a criminal and treating him like something he is not won't help matters."

Clint looked to Thor, "That why you have puppy eyes?"

"My eyes do not resemble a hound's, Barton. I spoke to my brother this morning but not about his arrangements. He is not sleeping."

Pepper turned in her seat to stare at Thor, as if he were her child and her concern was obviously overwhelming for Thor to consider. Clint even had to turn away on the pretense of making breakfast for them- only to notice he had left the fridge open.

"He isn't sleeping at all?"

Thor cleared his throat. "His mind is in an upheaval, it seems. I know my brother, and if this continues I am afraid he will lose the little he has gained of himself."

**_Great, crazy is going to get crazier. _**"Get Cassie to sedate him." **_When was it a good time to run your mouth? _**Clint sighed and turned not to see what he had expected, two sets of eyes looking disappointed he would suggest drugging Loki, but Pepper had a small smile behind her coffee mug and Thor seemed to be considering it.

The absence of people telling him to shut up because he hated Loki and his opinions weren't needed began upsetting Clint's understanding of the situation. He stumbled over what to say in the silence, "What?"

"It would take much to put my brother to sleep, he is physically healthy-"

Pepper held a hand up, "Actually, Thor, we need to talk about that."

Clint raised an eyebrow. "So my idea might work? Well, if only Nat was here to see _this_."

"I would speak to my brother again, and if I cannot convince him of this, we must act without his consent."

Clint lost his winning smile slowly and then all at once as the repercussions of what Thor was actually saying hit him. Loki was damaged even beyond letting himself fall asleep, whether it be out of fear or the inability to calm his mind, Clint could understand.

He had been under that same control, and the length of time that had been did not compare to the god of mischiefs duration or severity.

Loki knew what he had done, and for him to be unable to sleep meant regret. **_I'm feeling bad for this guy? Maybe I'm the crazy one. _**On the other hand, it could mean he was up scheming.

Just as Thor was getting up to go speak with his brother, Clint did something he would later be grateful for. "Hold on, Thor. It was my idea, I'll come with you. If Loki can blame anyone for thinking of drugging him, let it fall on me."

**_I need to face him at some point._**

* * *

The conversation didn't last long, mere minutes. It seemed in Loki's exhaustion he was adept at picking the exact words to arm Thor with rage not kindness, and so Clint got the thunder god away from his brother pretty quick.

A defensive mechanism is what Clint had been thinking. How long had it taken Loki to get skilled at hitting all the pressure points on his brother in times of stress for him to be that good at it? Hundreds of years according to Thor. "Loki has lashed out like such before, when he was injured on the battlefield during a skirmish. I was told he became fearsome and murdered many, including innocents."

Clint had brought Thor, Bruce and Tony to the lounge, Cassie one among them. "You were told? By who?"

**_By someone who had been paying attention?_**

Thor made no excuses, had stopped doing that for himself and Loki long ago. "One of the surviving guards. I was foolish enough to believe Loki could care for himself in battle. We were but children at the time."

"So you dragged your little brother into a war?" The thought to Tony was outlandish and incomprehensible and those feelings coloured his tone.

"He volunteered to fight by my side."

Clint spoke up for the first time since their gathering. "Wonder why he would do that?" It was a rhetorical question- they all knew, especially the god. Loki had worshipped him when they were children and Thor had taken advantage of it.

It was not the case then, so they would need a different tactic to coerce Loki into taking a cat nap. Clint's eyes roamed towards Natasha, remembering many times when it only took her a few words to talk him into anything.

It was worth a shot if Loki had someone from home that could do the same for him as Nat regularly did for Clint. "Thor, does Loki have a… or had a…significant other?" Clint didn't want to assume anything, but Thor and Loki were at least a thousand years old, young adults in Asgard's standards. There must have been someone other than Thor and the Warrior's Three who held Loki's hard won friendship.

Perhaps not, though, for Loki to have gone so wayward, maybe there hadn't been anyone to confide or seek friendship in.

Thor's bright eyes widened for a fraction of a second, and his face fell. "There was one; I doubt she would aid Loki now."

"Would this girl's name be Sigyn?" Pepper piped up from the lounge entrance, coming from the short hallway leading to her and Tony's private suite. She stood with her arms crossed; having heard their talk since they'd began. Clint suspected Pepper had been busy doing paperwork for Stark Industries in her office and JARVIS informed her they we're coming up the elevator.

Pepper took a seat beside Tony while Thor confirmed, "Yes, how do you know her?"

Clint rolled his eyes, "We do have books, you gods are mentioned a lot in Norse mythology. Haven't heard of this Sigyn, though."

"Sigyn was a dear friend. She had stumbled upon Loki in his travels to Alfheim. She saved my brother, and as a reward the Allfather gave her a home in the palace for she had no family."

"Saved him from what?" Clint apparently was the only one not familiar with any of the Norse legends, for even Tony had come to realize what Thor said next.

"He had been found by bandits, who knew he was prince, so tied him to a serpent's tree. The snake dripped poison into Loki's eyes until Sigyn found him. She slayed the snake and brought Loki back to Asgard, he was blind until tended to by our healers."

Cassie broke the silence with an unsure voice, "Sounds like a nice girl,"

Thor did not beam as he usually would, "She is the likeliest person who could reason with Loki."

"I sense you have a problem with telling her." Bruce positioned himself on the other side of Thor on the leather couch. "Is she one of the people on Asgard who had no problem casting him out?"

"She still believes Loki dead from his fall from the Bifrost."

"Thor that was two years ago, how can she still not know?"

"She left before Loki fell, and when I brought her the news we agreed never to speak again and I cannot blame her. She has never returned to Asgard I think because it pains her to remember."

Clint suspected there was something Thor wasn't telling them. They'd known him for long enough to tell.

Tony threw c=Clint one of his trademark 'I don't like this' looks before flipping the switch and saying, "Hopefully she'll come to Earth, then. It's sounding like a better idea the more I think about it, Point Break. Clint's right; Loki might listen to her cause she's saved his ass before."

"I hope you are right, Stark."

* * *

"So what can we expect? I can't imagine any friend of Loki's wouldn't be hostile towards us." Steve said as he and Thor stood side by side on Stark's balcony. Clint remained nearby but decided to keep distance with Natasha and Pepper. After Thor had shouted to the sky for half an hour, Heimdall replied and Thor told his friends Sigyn would be arriving any moment.

"I do not believe Sigyn would be hostile to you, Steven. I am the one who has kept the truth from her, she will have quarrel with me."

Clint couldn't help noticing Thor looked apprehensive at his own words. Before anyone could comment –and Tony looked like he had something to say- the balcony was struck with a blinding golden light concentrated in front of Thor, and once it had been extinguished stood a raven haired woman wearing golden dress and dark robes the colour of aged tree bark.

"Sigyn,"

She did not speak at first as her deep eyes roamed the collected group. "It is nice to make your acquaintance, Midgardian heroes." As soon as her eyes hit Thor, they turned fiery as if a volcano erupted behind their glassy surface. "Thor Odinson, Heimdall has explained already why you request my presence. Is it truth?"

Clint could see that Sigyn hoped it was lies and Thor tricked her into coming for other reasons.

"It is, Sigyn. Loki lives, he is in this tower as we speak."

Something fell from her expression and escaped in a small sigh, her eyes now taking in the sight around her of New York. Any other visitor would have been entranced with the view, but not her.

Clint understood why. If all Thor had said about her and Loki's relationship, Sigyn just found out what she had hoped all along, that Loki had survived. There had been hope and now she allowed herself to truly feel it.

Sigyn didn't break eye contact with Thor. "Tell me all, and do not leave a single thing secret. Your brother is not the only one who can weed out your lies, Odinson."

No one had spoken with such wrath to Thor that still lived, Clint was sure. Thor looked cowed under Sigyn's glaring, dismissing his friends to speak privately.

Clint sat around in the kitchen, watching the two gods pace the terrace and every so often Sigyn would erupt in shouting and Thor would explain faster.

By the end, the Avengers got a taste for what Frigga was most like to her son. It seemed Sigyn had as much respect from Thor, for he not once got out of hand with their arguing. Tony even kept is smart-ass remarks to himself when they came inside and Thor properly introduced them.

Sigyn accepted a glass of water from Pepper when it looked she had grown pale in the wake of what Thor had told her of what had happened in her absence.

"Lady Sigyn, you are welcome here as long as you like." Pepper offered, and Clint almost spit his pop out of his mouth when Tony's didn't make a single sound in protest.

A powerful woman indeed to render Tony speechless. Then again, Clint didn't think he would have said a word in protest either. Sigyn regarded them all with a thankful smile before speaking, handing the water glass back to Pepper.

"Thank you for your kindness, but before I decide to take you up on it, I would like to speak with Loki."

Thor stood, having regained some of his composure now Sigyn wasn't at his throat anymore and would soon be at Loki's. "I will escort you."

* * *

**A/N: Okay sorry that wasn't posted yesterday, it was finished but I had forgotten.**

**I hope you enjoyed, reviews are my muse for writing Sigyn! G.**


	3. Secrets

**A/N: I'm trying to keep the chapters long enough to get the story moving along but not so long as you need a break in the middle.**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own anything Marvel.**

* * *

_Secrets_

There was no dictation in his being Loki could find which had wanted to hurt Thor. That is what kept him awake, the intense rage and betrayal he had felt before falling from the Bifrost. Before his one true moment of clarity when the Chitauri had realized they'd lost for the moment, they performed their greatest torture- releasing their prisoner for a scant few minutes of sane thought.

It had driven Loki to let go- _the things he had done_. No one could forgive, not a brother, not a father or mother or any other being could have helped him even forgive himself.

In was in the middle of these damning memories he heard Stark's automated servant announce a visitor.

"Inform my oaf of a brother I will not-"

The door began opening, and Loki prepared to hurl obscenities at his brother for interrupting him so carelessly as he had just been collecting his thoughts after their fight.

All presence of mind evaporated when the visitor closed the door behind them, standing straight and expectant before Loki. She had paler skin than he remembered; her dress spoke of her homeland and not of Asgard. She held no spite in her face or any ill-will as he would have expected when their paths crossed once again.

How Sigyn looked with stars reflected in her eyes and the night sky reflecting on her skin, patches of starlight on her dress as they laid under the canopy of trees was the only memory Loki had of her that was not corrupt. The only vision of her that hadn't been tainted with hate and regret by the Chitauri and his own lies did not compare to the real things. The mist of tainted memories evaporated and suddenly he remembered her as clear as she was now presented.

Seeing her then, Loki understood why men of old had liken her to Valkyrie come to take them to Valhalla, to a place of peace amidst inner wars, it almost brought the god to his knees. Loki had not seen her since they were very young in the halls of Asgard before her engagement.

Her hair still held that dull black luster, long as her torso and kept aside with a clasp of small ethereal flowers. Her eyes as they looked on him did not hold any contempt or pity, rather a surprise that was held in the small O of her mouth before she spoke aloud, seemingly having to take courage to do so. "Loki, you shake as though I am here to slay you."

"Is that not your purpose? Your very presence has me doubting whether I still live as we speak." He hoped his voice didn't convey the weakness he felt standing there up against her innate strength, if she had been in his position she would not have fallen victim to the Chitauri. He knew she would have taken her own life rather than hope to survive and have caused so much destruction.

She averted her eyes for a moment but the full force of their gaze were soon back on him, "You will not live for long if what Thor says is true."

**_So she came for Thor_**. Loki knew it was not what he expected, he knew she had no feelings for his brother and that through it all they were good friends, but still he couldn't take the bite from his tone. "Ah, that is why you've come? At the behest of my dear brother. How far have you travelled for the wishes of a prince?"

"Loki." It was said distantly as if the story was still being told, "I know," the one of his dissent from Asgard and his failed subjugation of Midgard. Sigyn said it as if none of that mattered, and only his reply was holding her there, that his words were the only things that could send her away.

Sigyn had not changed. She had grown up in their years apart into a marvel of good features and grand presence that rivaled Queen Frigga with its magnanimity. Sigyn could fell warriors with a look, and also encourage them with the smallest breath to continue fighting.

Loki had missed that. Having a rival to his wit and mischief, an equal in the ways of magic and subterfuge he had found in no other.

He had missed her, and that was frightening after growing used to relying on no one, not becoming sentimental. In the calming presence after his heart had stopped trying to escape from his chest as the sight of a lost ally, Loki felt truly at ease until the consequence of Sigyn knowing his crimes fully bloomed in his mind.

How could she look at him with such openness after knowing his crimes?

**_She looks at me no different than when we were children. She had changed little, how am I to compare?_** He didn't recognize himself in the mirror, but in her reflection he had grasped some of his old self if only in the first seconds before memories began resurfacing.

Sigyn waited patiently for him to speak again, watched him pace the room for a time as she sat on the leather couch beneath the flat screen television mounted to the wall.

She sensed Thor waiting not as patiently behind the glass wall she'd come through. Sending a calming wave of energy towards Thor, Sigyn tried gaining eye-contact with Loki but the god was stubbornly watching the floor as he wandered.

Wandering always did quiet his mind- it was to blame for his sleepless nights, and her reason for appearing.

She would give him time.

Perhaps new clothing. She did like his ensemble, plain black shirt and pants with green hems and angular cuts, matching his longer hair. Sigyn was not used to seeing Loki in disarray, attributing it to his new state of mind.

It was concerning. "When I got word you were alive, nothing compared to that feeling."

"I have not lost the ability to know when you lie."

"No, you haven't. Shall I describe what it was like to listen to your brother recount what you had done? Sadness so deep I thought my chest had been carved from my body. For your mind to be open to influence like that, there must have been doubt of our love. There must have been doubt the Allfather and Queen Frigga loved you dearly. We were friends, and I am ashamed to have forgotten that. I am ashamed I failed you. Now tell me if I lie." By that point Sigyn had knelt beside the couch where Loki had paused in his steps. All Sigyn could see was his back, the curve of his shoulders and feel the ice radiating off of him like he was a distant star unable to warm the sky around himself.

"Stand."

She did so, knowing full well his intention was to sound commanding. He was still a prince of Asgard, and she his subject no matter how far removed. Sigyn had a duty to him as Loki of Asgard, son of the Allfather.

Loki turned to her, face a mask of indifference and good manners not to throw a guest out of the room. She misunderstood him, as it seemed she always would.

His emotions were not hidden, but in plain view. It came through his words, as all things Loki did had before. The Silvertongue, the Liesmith, and still apparently her dear friend. "You mistake my ire for contempt, Sigyn."

"So you do remember my name after all these years, or does it bring you pain to utter it now?"

He had flinched at her name, as if it burned his lips on the way out. It burned her ears to hear it without the care he used to call her name with. Her name was nothing to him but a distant memory.

For the first time in her long life, Sigyn began regretting her decisions. Should she have not come? Perhaps Thor would have broken through Loki's defenses after a while, or perhaps not. If what she saw held true, and her gut feelings were hardly misleading, it had been the right decision to go to him.

The two didn't speak for an eternity, but in reality only mere seconds. It had been almost half a century since they'd spoken, so those seconds after holding what conversation that had been was gut-wrenching.

"Loki-"

"What are you waiting for? You have my permission to leave." He walked over to a section of wall without the decoration of pictures, where once he touched his hand to it lit up with a plain grassy field as if spying it from a window.

Sigyn turned defiant. There was a limit to her obedience, and he had found it. "I will not."

"And why is that? You've fulfilled your duty to Thor and to me. You're not needed, you never were. You made your choice, now return to your husband."

Stunned silence and for a split second Sigyn thought she saw something like regret flash in Loki's eyes, whether for his words or their past it was elusive and fleeting. No matter the feelings, she knew the crux of his annoyance.

"That was a marriage of politics- you mattered more."

Loki straightened, back a rod of steel and fists tightly choking the air at his sides. "Yet you chose to stay away nonetheless."

"You were and are a prince. I had no right to stake a claim."

"You had every right! Had I no choice, then? Sigyn- you…"

"I know."

A bit of his old self tore through, and his words echoed the last ones she had heard leaving Asgard for Alfheim. "You certainly don't."

"Maybe not where our affections for each other stand, but I do know if you do not take better care of yourself you will die. That is something I know I cannot live with."

"If I wanted I couldn't rest. There is too much to remember."

A few minutes of silence lapsed while Sigyn walked along a row of books on a shelf nailed to the wall at hip level, most were Midgardian texts. She picked one at random, seeing it a compiled work of poetry from some human laureate. Sigyn picked a rather long poem after flipping through it, "How about I read like when we were children? That always put you to sleep."

"For you were horrid at it. You have only one tone of voice." It was mock annoyance, and it did not fool either of them, for she had turned to find Loki sitting on the bed with legs crossed, not quite anticipatory but expectant.

Sigyn joined him, gathering her dress about her knees and climbing to sit beside with the open book. "It seems my voice has found purpose at last." Her smirk and sideways glance only riled Loki more, and Sigyn has the distinct memory of sitting in a corner hall of the palace with Loki getting angry she wasn't doing the voices right and he had to take over.

"Settle, Loki. This will only work if you let it."

"Read, then."

* * *

Clint wasn't interested in Sigyn how he'd expected on first seeing her on the roof. She was beautiful, yes, but there was something about her that warded him off from cultivating romantic feelings. It was clear there was something between her and Loki, Clint just didn't understand what. Thor had come back up to the kitchen after showing Sigyn to the lower levels.

"I hope they're not breaking any of my stuff," Tony half-teased, overseeing the coffee brewing while Natasha woke everyone by handing out SHIELD documents on their new responsibilities as Loki's handlers. Clint began thinking Thor hadn't heard Tony and after a few minutes of what looked like careful deliberation, the god addressed them. "Sigyn is reading to him."

Clint almost spat his pop out for the second time that day. It wasn't even noon yet and already he had been caught off-guard by as mundane a thing as that. "What? Little romantic for their first reunion, isn't it?"

Tony winked his approval at Clint before taking the coffeepot off the burner and pouring the first mug for Thor.

He smiled in thanks, "Sigyn reading stories to us was a childhood pastime. My brother would often fall asleep by the end, which angered her more often than it endeared him in her eyes."

Pepper didn't have a wistful look for long after noticing the time. "Well I'll be late for a meeting if I don't leave now. See you all tonight, dinner will be on me."

Clint waited for Tony to make a joke, something along the lines of gladly eating dinner off of her, but silence followed Pepper's departure.

Clint was not the only one who noticed and he caught Bruce's eyes.

Everyone was having domestic problems today.

* * *

Sigyn returned from her talk with Loki looking tired but cheerful. Her news upon entering the lounge was cause for celebration in her eyes, even if her tone remained morose. "He is resting, almost snoring as if he were a beast."

Thor immediately grinned except in the search of Sigyn's face found something he did not like and the grin melted away, concern taking its place. "There is something wrong?"

All eyes were on her once more, and she bristled into a better posture. "May we speak alone?" She would not say she did not trust earth's heroes, for only good things she had heard of them. Sigyn was not comfortable speaking blatantly in front of them, especially such personal things.

Thor must have seen it in her glance for he readily agreed. Sigyn breathed a sigh of relief as Tony told her she was welcome to stay in the spare bedroom beside Thor's.

Thor led her to the room, it was furnished elegantly with pale blue curtains and bed sheets, a writing desk and chair accompanying the dresser set.

Thor pulled the chair towards the bed and sat, waiting for Sigyn to do the same. Instead, she remained standing by the window with hands clasped in front of her.

"I am sorry to have taken you from Theoric for such nonsense. Loki remains stubborn?"

"I admit I was not prepared to see him in such a state. He has grown weary of his life, and sleep will not heal that."

Thor remained silent, suspecting she was not done speaking. She had yet to look him in the eyes, and the sunlight coming in from the windows blinded him to her features.

Even so, her voice was enough to convince him of her heartbreak on seeing one's friend so broken after knowing how strong they had been. Her guilt that they were to blame for the ebbing of that strength even if it hadn't been intentional began festering in her chest.

"I think it was unwise and foolish of me to have come. I should have been content knowing he was alive."

"You are the only one he would listen to."

"He would listen to you. You are still brash," She gave him a watery smile, settling herself on the bed's edge facing him. "As for Theoric…" Sigyn closed her eyes and when they reopened Thor did not recognize who stared back at him, for Sigyn had never looked at a loss for words.

"What has happened? Has Alfheim closed its doors to Asgard once again?"

"No, that matter is long settled. The Allfather has been kind in that regard."

At once Thor fell easily into his concern for his friend Sigyn hadn't witnessed for some time since they're separation. "Something troubles you. If Theoric has done you wrong-"

"Thor, please," Her amused laugh at his speculation was not as fulfilling to hear as when they would giggle as children, it was too hollow and did not fit her at all. Thor's worry almost drowned out her next words.

"Theoric went to Valhalla many years ago."

She had expected shock, perhaps anger from him but not the quiet sadness. "Why did you not come home?"

"What a question, when you _know_ we agreed I would not return to Asgard."

"That was for-" your protection. Those words, they died on his lips. She had looked away, and never before had she done so. Not since she lied about putting brine in Thor's bath that had stained his skin when they were young.

Thor left that matter for another day. This was not about his feelings of her lies- her husband was dead. "When did this happen?"

"He was murdered on a hunt… a year after we were married. There are no children, only I, his sister and niece."

It was unfathomable, this outspoken woman being so timid and far away, where her mind had always been sharp and present. That was the toll grief had taken on her, one added to by seeing Loki. "You have been alone for all that time, and when I came to tell you of Loki's fall, you said nothing. You made a promise on a lie."

"Alfheim had closed its gates to Asgard and other realms; it would not bode well for me to reach out to its princes and king to return home. The circumstances of Theoric's death were suspicious already, how would it look to his people if only a year had passed since our union and he was killed, and I was whisked away to Asgard? His sister was left with no one, and it was my duty to stay, I had an obligation to his family as his widow."

"You truly are a goddess of fidelity, Sigyn. My father named you right."

"Please do not tell Loki; anyone. We must keep this uncomplicated, I am here only to see him recover and I will return to Alfheim."

"You must return _to Asgard_, my mother and father would have it no other way, we would welcome his family gladly."

"You are kind, my prince, but I cannot. You know why,"

* * *

** A/N: I try not to end chapters on a cliffhanger, but it does happen sometimes.**

**Hope you enjoyed! This is an early chapter as I am occupied Friday. G**


	4. To Court Danger

**A/N: I am so happy to incorporate Frigga finally! I love writing her even if it's a challenge.**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel, this is my mantra.**

* * *

_To Court Danger_

**_If I were brave, I would have returned long ago._**

Her thoughts were not for want of forgetting how beautiful Asgard was, or the gleaming halls and ornate decoration guiding her way to the throne room. It was the people, those trailing by in hushed conversation, the town's people bustling back and forth from palace to the lower city that were unfamiliar and left an ache in Sigyn's heart.

She was recognized by some she knew, others merely gawked at her guardsmen escort from the gates to Odin's throne room. Was she important? She did resemble the fallen prince's forgotten love interest, did she not? Mama, look at how she dresses, is she a princess? How dare that woman walk freely into the palace, when she was consort to a Jotun traitor?

Sigyn ignored their words, and held her head high, for the grand doors opened and the guards, preceding her, held the Allfathers attention and now so did she.

"King Odin, you have a visitor."

That all-seeing and benevolent eye lapsed on her before he ushered away the guards and gestured for his wife to come to the bottom steps to greet their visitor from the table she had been sitting at. Queen Frigga smiled on first seeing Sigyn but soon darkened, probably wondering why she had come. Was it news of her sons or a more troubling treatise for the Allfather on behalf of Alfheim?

Sigyn did her best to radiate a calming presence, bowing slightly in Frigga's direction, warm smile softening her strained face.

Odin stood to address her. "Lady Sigyn, it is a pleasant surprise to see you again."

**_Not such a pleasant surprise, I think._**

"I have comes at your son's request for some of prince Loki's personal affects."

The already chilly seasonal air bit at her exposed skin suddenly, as if she had given herself shivers and it had not been the icy glare from Odin and the grimace from Frigga that had turned Sigyn's blood to stone. **_Let him be angry, he cannot harm me_**. She knew it was more hope than fact.

"I have only one son, and he is no longer a prince of Asgard."

"That is unfortunate to hear." Sigyn cursed her tongue and the influence of Loki in their childhood to be so brisk with Odin. She knew remembering her place among the royal family would be a benefit, but the quick grin from the Queen did not deflate Sigyn;s pride at her bitter tone.

"How is your husband?"

**_Quite dead, Allfather, but he would send his respects from Valhalla nonetheless_**.

"Theoric is well, he is hunting in the fields and will be occupied for the next few weeks."

Inclining her head more cut out the concerning look Frigga had been quick to hide from her own husband, for she knew Sigyn well and thus, the young woman knew fooling the Queen would be hard.

Frigga knew heartbreak well and would recognize it in another.

Odin continued as if he had not noticed Sigyn turning her eyes away from the throne. "You have always been loyal, Lady Sigyn. It is because of my affection for that loyalty you may gather the traitor's affects. I trust you still know the way." It was added on as an afterthought, but Odin did not say hollow words, it was his dig at Sigyn for the rumours surrounding her hasty marriage to Theoric and her absence from court for so long.

**_Two can play this game, my King_**. "Actually, Allfather, I must ask Queen Frigga accompany me. It has been long since we spoke and I find I have much to tell her." **_I just do not know which game you play yet_**.

* * *

Old school charm. It was an aura she had grown to accommodate, carried in her warm smile, kind words and that slight southern twang to her voice. Smart as a whip and not afraid to show it, to take command of a situation.

Those were the characteristics Steve first noticed. They were the ones that had led him to her office on the Helicarrier, which was not much more than a desk among many in one of the rooms of the medical floor. She shared it with other medics, doctors and SHIELD trauma surgeons.

He had found her one Saturday afternoon after a briefing with the Avengers sipping coffee and writing up a report.

"Doctor Williams?"

"If you're here to tell me you've hit your head, give it a few hours super soldier."

Steve smiled, "May I?"

"Please," She removed the stack of folders taking up the only vacant chair in the room. The other desks were unoccupied; everyone had gone for lunch and had other duties to occupy themselves. Steve vaguely remembered a talk about one of the field teams coming back with brutal injuries, and chalked it up to work load that Cassie had found herself alone.

Cassie closed the confidential files and gave all her attention to him for the first time since they'd met. "Something wrong or are you the messenger for Stark complaining about the lack of babying by my team?"

Steve tried not looking her directly in the eye and just smirked. Tony had said something about that, but it wasn't why he had found himself in her office.

"Actually, I came to welcome you to the team." Cassie and her staff had been put on official Avenger watch, and by her response she already knew. Cassie's expression perked in interest when he told her exactly how she was being welcomed.

She sounded a little incredulous, which instantly reminded Steve that Cassie was a career oriented lady who might not take kindly to an invite to lunch. "You want to have coffee?"

Steve tried not to squirm under her scrutiny; she reminded him a lot of Peggy. "I think so. Yes."

What he hadn't expected was a smile and a yes.

* * *

Silence had never been Sigyn's dearest companion. Compared to the past times when nothing had been said or quiet prevailed over all else the walk with Frigga to the family's private chambers was the happiest silence Sigyn ever remembered. The last time nothing could be said was the day Thor told her of Loki's fall. Since then, Sigyn learnt to fill pauses with joyous talk or productivity.

Thankfully Frigga saved her from the more embarrassing topics she started to entertain halfway to their destination. "How are my sons?"

Sigyn was assured Frigga did not share Odin's thoughts and was ashamed her small sigh of relief was noticed.

"Thor is well, my Queen. Loki is adjusting still."

They had come around the bend, where on each side of the hall stood simple doors, one leading to Loki's rooms and the other, Thor's. Nothing distinguished them, only the Warrior's Three and a few of the guard knew the difference. Frigga proceeded opening Loki's with the push of her hand, and a shield resembling the ones holding up the walls of the dungeons fell invisible to the floor. Once entered, Sigyn and Frigga lit the few remaining candles to illuminate the sparse walls and furniture still dusted daily by servants.

"He should be recovering at home. As should you have done."

There used to be a wall of ivy hiding stone underneath in the garden, and Loki has once tricked Sigyn attempting to run through it. That is what it felt to Sigyn hearing the Queen's words, calling Asgard her home as if Alfheim never existed, as if she had never cared for Theoric and that life had been a place holder for this one.

"Beg your pardon?" If her voice sounded like a leaf fluttering to the ground, hardly there but noticed in the silence, Sigyn cared not. Once they had stepped into Loki's chambers, Frigga was just a loving mother and Sigyn a foolish girl. They were both harassed with memories of the past and no longer did their stations matter.

"I once described the passing of an old friend to you in that same way. A long hunting trip."

Sigyn remembered it well, but remained quiet as she picked through books on shelves, selecting a few Loki might appreciate having again.

**_What could I say?_** Not very much, for Frigga was now speaking from the inner bedchamber.

"Collect what you need, I will retrieve some clothing."

Sigyn bent to retrieve the messenger bag she knew Loki kept under the desk, the one Thor had thoughtfully (a surprise to all) made his brother to carry trinkets from other lands. Upon upending it onto the large oak desk, pieces of parchment and quills spilled out along with a small pocket-sized leather bound book.

In it was a compilation of notes of his travels. Not paying mind, she put it back in his bag, thinking he would want ti as well. Stuffing what had been in the bag back in, she added the few books she could and a drawing Loki had done long ago of his mother. A gentle reminder of family.

Latching the bag closed, Sigyn secured it to her back just as Frigga had come in from the bedchamber with another small bag and a sad smile pulling down her beauty, but not drowning it out. Sigyn did not ask why she had tears in her eyes as they closed the door once more and stepped into the brighter hall.

* * *

Loki felt the need to point out he had been fine roaming the multitude of floors alone, and had been doing just that most nights while the other occupants slept. He had caught Miss Williams one night studying something under her microscopes and jotting down notes in a small book she always kept in her purse.

He had approached slowly at first, not wanting to startle her. The last they had spoken he was unkind to her which was unfair. Cassie was nothing if not accommodating and unfailingly decent, with a quick wit Loki was innately attracted to.

To accomplish anything close to apology that meant interacting with her- and what better time than the dead of night with little chance of interruption? Sigyn had gone to Asgard on Thor`s request and had been gone for a few days, none of them expected her back very soon. This left Loki to his own entertainment, for Thor had decided that he was quite safe there and had gone on some adventure with Banner on SHIELDs entreaty.

She clearly knew he was there; her movements became slower, almost so she didn't frighten him off by being loud and clumsy. She replaced the glass slides underneath the telescope and looked up.

Loki gestured to the stool beside her. "Mind if I join you?"

Cassie shrugged but her small welcoming smile put all of Loki's doubts at ease. This woman was a healer; it was in her nature to be helpful even if it meant entertaining a trickster so late in the night.

"May I?"

Cassie wheeled away and pulled his chair so he sat in reach of the scope. "Be my guest. I'm going to go file these, you okay for a few minutes?" In her hands were gathered documents and manila envelopes that had been scattered in a semicircle around the workstation, most of them filled to the brim with colourful sticky notes, handwritten messages and typed pages of data Loki was insanely curious about.

She waited for his nod, and then went across the room to an assortment of metal filing cabinets. The sounds of her ruffling through files reorganizing continued to be the only noise, all of the commotion inviting the feeling of contentment. It was a break from the silent hours spent in his cell which Stark had only agreed to let him out with the added security of JARVIS.

Loki looked through the lens and had to blink a few times to focus.

He must have made some sound of derision in the back of his throat, hard to tell for it was still constantly sore, for Cassie to speak up as she closed the drawers. "Something wrong?" It wasn't concern, as if he had fallen to the floor and was in pain from invisible wounds.

This was a manner he had oft heard Frigga use when pretending to be ignorant of the situation.

"No." It was not convincing in the slightest.

Cassie sighed. "You can ask me questions, Loki. Kind of my job to have the answers."

Keeping his eyes levelled to the scope but following her movement to the other side of the bench, Loki posed a question. "What sort of healer are you?"

Cassie smirked and sat down, arms crossed on the table, tracing the patterns on his borrowed shirt with her eyes. "A human healer."

Loftily and with a smugness Loki believed he had lost, "Meaning you are human or only treat humans?"

Her smile broke into a grin and she laughed. "I am human and I treat humans. Why?"

"This…sample. It is _not_ human." Loki was instantly suspicious when her face went emotionless and she reached for the scope, pulling it across the table. She switched between looking through the lens and at Loki.

She squinted up at him, and slowly but seriously clarified, "You mean to tell me this is not human, or Asgardian, or anything of the sort?"

"It is disguised to resemble Asgardian blood cells. Whoever that blood belongs to is Jotun."

Loki believed it was only one of his, that perhaps the doctor in her sleep deprived state as she obviously was with messy hair and bruise like shadows beneath her honey coloured eyes. At first her alarming gasp was covered by her furrowing brows, and Loki went back to sifting through files she had left on the desk.

When she did not tell him to unhand them, that they were confidential files, did Loki become concerned.

"Doctor Williams?"

Three seconds and her confused if not slightly aghast expression turned to silent horror. "Oh lord no!" She had jumped from the table so fast Loki flinched. His own heartbeat echoed in his ears, and if Cassie hadn't been in such a dire hurry to speak to whoever she was frantically dialing on the phone, she would have apologized for frightening him.

It had been a rule around the tower that when Loki was in the room, no outbursts or loud noises were to occur.

Loki had destroyed an entire floor just weeks prior when Clint dropped in from the ceiling with a "Hey man," and Loki went into self-defence and sent a shockwave through the entire tower.

JARVIS was even knocked offline.

Clint had been silently apologetic ever since. It was unpleasant seeing what once was a powerful god be brought to such lengths in order to feel safe. Thor had never seen his brother so alarmed, even in their childhood.

Cassie called it PTSD, and Loki did not quite understand the terms but accepted them.

It was only because the good doctor looked so terrified herself did Loki brush off her outburst.

Her hands were shaking as she held the phone to her ear, cursing to herself and forgetting Loki was even still there.

He would have left… but something in her tone made him stay seated.

"This is Doctor Cassie Williams, code three-four-victor-six, I need to speak with medical immediately. Crisis ninety-four, there is a foreign body in the medical ward and you need to evacuate immediately."

Alarmed silence, her eyes were wide, "Then patch me through to director Fury or Maria Hill, and who cares if its two a.m. this is a security breach!"

Her usual feminine lilt had turned into a furious, booming rage. Loki was quiet impressed with the authority she was able to exude in her anxious state. It was an odd sight; she was shoeless wearing jeans and a light periwinkle blouse with pearl buttons, looking much like a young woman who was lounging at home. Or a mother just informed her child had been imprisoned, hair in an array of tangles and mouth moving in silent curses.

It was no longer a phenomenon why Steve Rogers was infatuated with this woman.

Loki made a note to inform Rogers that Cassie may enjoy a night off in the near future.

It was doubtful it would happen, because the next thing she was shouting was that a Jotun was on Helicarrier Iliad. "The sample you gave me, from patient X in room forty-three-fifty, turns out I was right to suspect some foreign illness. That patient is from Jotunheim and is under a spell or something to disguise them as Asgardian."

A few moments of silence and the first time since the conversation started did Cassie look over her shoulder at Loki. "Yes, the same spell Loki Odinson uses. He is not the concern here, evacuate that wing and lock it down so help me god I will ensure Fury knocks down your pay grade to that of a teenager working at a fast food joint, you understand?"

Impressed, Loki remained respectfully silent once Cassie hung up the phone.

"JARVIS?"

"_At your service, Miss Williams."_

"Alert Agents Barton and Romanoff of the situation if Hill hasn't already and please get Mr. Stark down here."

* * *

"I know you will care for them,"

Heimdall was patient to wait while they said their goodbyes. Guards stood at the entrance to the dome with horses to guide Frigga back to the palace and leave Sigyn to travel to Midgard.

"That is my purpose," Sigyn bowed, wishing that her eyes did not sting with tears as she was once again forced to leave the city she loved. This time it was not out of duty or the loyalty Odin spoke too highly of, but selfishness. She had been welcomed to stay a night, rest before returning only to decline the offer without contemplation.

Sigyn did not want to be away from her Thor and Loki for more time than necessary now she had been reacquainted and gained a taste for their company again.

"Promise to look after yourself, for I care as much about your wellbeing as my sons."

Sigyn knew she looked shocked and a little cowed at the admission for Frigga smiled greatly in earnest before letting go of Sigyn's hands in farewell. "Return soon, I would gladly welcome you again, dear."

Speechless, she turned the same as Frigga, going separate ways once more. Heimdall opened the Bifrost, Sigyn stood looking back at the Queen who rode off quickly before Odin noticed she had sent Sigyn off herself.

"Be ready, my Lady," Heimdall's monotone voice instructed.

"Whenever you are."

Not even her senses caught up to the rush of colour and sensation coalescing in her body before being deposited on the balcony of Stark tower. It was late at night, she knew, for only the penthouse lights were on, and even Thor had fallen into slumber on the couch in the lounge with a red wool blanket draped over him. Sigyn walked into the kitchen with the bags on her back.

"_Welcome back, Miss Sigyn."_ JARVIS, the ever present servant of Stark's she had just remembered resided as the building's security system, dimmed the lights and opened the elevator doors for Sigyn just as she reached them.

"Thank you."

"_Your presence is needed on the medical floor_."

* * *

**A/N: Just a small interlude of what's happening outside of Loki's perception, it will be important later.**

**Hope you enjoyed! **

**(There will be an update to Culprits of Action on Wednesday) G**


	5. Disaster in Both Worlds

**A/N: Okay so think of this chapter as a kind of interlude to others because of reasons as in trying to set up a backstory to explain what will happen in the next few chapters. I'm a sucker for complete backstories so things make sense. Also, sorry about it being a day late, I was having trouble with uploading it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any Marvel characters.**

* * *

_Disaster in Both Worlds_

If she were to have stayed away, if she were to have decided her life had evolved past caring for he and Thor she would be as good as dead.

Loki knew this, and yet seeing Sigyn walk onto the medical floor at Stark Tower almost immediately on her return from Asgard was a shock still. If she had not come when Thor asked, Loki could not deny he would be in no shape to handle much else than breathing, for she encompassed most of his happier memories.

She had come, and she was there now, so why was he frantic with this great nothing in his chest?

"Is there something wrong?" He asked her, for perhaps that feeling nearest his heart did not come from him. They had been attuned to each other since childhood, and perhaps on her return, so did his ability to care.

"Returning to Asgard was everything I feared."

That evoked his madness, had the Allfather treated her roughly, is that why she harboured the look of a woman haunted? "What did Odin do?"

She carried Loki's personal bag; Sigyn must have gone to his old rooms for what she bore which must have been tricky.

"He did nothing, settle down," Sigyn immediately went to him to lightly push him back onto the stool, he was pale and weak still which did no good for either of them. Loki knew she worried herself too much, and that brought around other unnameable feelings.

Did Sigyn leave her children for him?

"I am fine," He snapped out of not knowing why she continued to evade her life for one she wanted to forget, one she willingly left. "It is in her nature to be faithful." He shivered against the intrusion of Odin's voice, of something the king had said long ago. "I have not had a single moment of rest today. Stark has the Avengers on shifts watching me."

He seemed more put out than usual, seeing as the only attendant Loki had at that moment was the ever watchful eyes of JARVIS while the Avengers were being briefed on Helicarrier Iliad's status in the conference rooms.

It clicked in Sigyn's mind that would be the reason JARVIS had summoned her there.

She needed to distract him from that problem and apparently the one he was creating in his mind about her returning to Asgard. "What does Thor say about that arrangement?"

"It's only for a month. For my continued recovery." It was flippant and Sigyn caught hint of him rolling his eyes but deigned a comment. She continued to browse the cabinets and various debris around the lab. "I see. I will not lie, it is because they still see you as a danger more to yourself than to them, I think."

It did not have the expected reaction. She had turned to see a perfect cal settle over Loki when his words had the bite of the monster he spoke of. "I honestly would send a bilgesnipe to their doorsteps to save me from this disgrace." Yet there was a twitch there at the edge of his thin mouth which told different.

"I do know when you're joking even if you are cruel about it."

"Yes, let's speak of you, my current Hel."

"Be nice, Loki, I've brought gifts."

"Oh, so the guards do care."

That was how easy it had been, falling into the banter of their past and as such her answer wiped the smirk from his face.

"They're from your mother."

Equally as fast, she could tell his mind did not just travel to past memories, but plunge there.

* * *

_In Asgard, some women were beautiful, some mothers or wives, some warriors, and all of them smart. The most intelligent were not born like that, especially those in political positions whose families hold rank within the court. Those women were bred to be cunning, learned through mistake and correction._

_Then there was Sigyn. Brought the King's son safely home and thus was rewarded a home within the palace. She had been smart from the beginning by befriending not only one prince but two, and Queen Frigga was never far behind when the Lady Sigyn got into trouble._

_Not many women were allowed to pass unquestioned by the guards around the prince's private wing of the palace._

_So on the morning of Thor and Loki's official coronation to name them Princes, with all rights and duties as their coming of age, Sigyn walked directly past the two guards stationed by the hall doors. Unravelling a piece of cloth to reveal fresh baked pastires from the kichens, Sigyn handed one off to each guard she passed._

_It wouldn't be a lie to say that the palace guards each wanted a turn guarding the princes when Sigyn was in Asgard._

_Bot bothering to nock on Loki's door, Sigyn entered and put the other bundle of cloth on Loki;s cluttered desk. It was the only space in the room where things were in disarray. The books on the shelf were in perfect order, the same for how Loki slept. Unlike his brother, he decided to take up one side of the bed and sleep proper on his back with either a hand behind his head s if he were merely napping or folded across his stomach._

_Sigyn crept onto the unoccupied side of the bed, and put her fingers through Loki;s short black hair. "Loki?" She knew the correct way Loki liked to be woken. Thor would just barge in after making a ruckus in the hall, jump onto the bed and announce that his brother had slept half the day away. "Loki," Sigyn whispered in his ear close enough to disturb some hair that had fallen into his face. She brushed it aside just as his eyes opened and looked at her from their corners._

_"What now?" His voice was cracked from sleep, just taking on the deep rumble and losing its boyish charm._

_Instead of answering, Sigyn leapt up to pull aside the heavy curtains across the room. "I brought breakfast; the tailor should be here soon so finish it quickly."_

_"I could get breakfast myself,"_

_"But would you? I know you don't like dining with Thor, it turns your stomach to see him shovel food into his mouth as if it were the end of times."_

_"You don't need to serve me."_

_Before Sigyn could put words to her offended expression, there was a knock on the door. Loki threw on a plain shirt before calling them in. He heard quiet talk in the ante-chamber before the bedchamber and raised a brow ay Sigyn, who sat with her arms crossed on the windowsill._

_"See, the palace isn't without servants." Indeed, the inner door opened and two maids came in, one bearing a breakfast tray and the other was the seamstress._

_"Point taken." Sigyn watched the maid set the tray on the bed before ushering herself into the bathing room to heat water for a bath._

_Sigyn occupied herself with looking out the window into the gardens while the seamstress fitted Loki a final time and left the clothes on his bed beside barely touched food. Sigyn was nibbling on some bread filled with honey and cheese that she almost spit out of her mouth when the seamstress asked if she knew how to dress the prince._

_"What?"_

_"Do not speak with food in your mouth, it's hardly ladylike." Loki called from the next room._

_She had never been one to speak badly to those who didn't deserve it, but from her lips came exactly what Loki had been waiting for. "First, the prince can dress himself, he isn't helpless. Secondly, I am not his servant. Now go see to Prince Thor."_

_The seamstress left with the maid, leaving the bathing door open and Sigyn saw that the water still steamed. "Go clean yourself, I will return these to the kitchens."_

* * *

_Sigyn's own rooms were in the busier part of the palace in the guest quarters that usually housed delegation parties from other realms when they had annual festivities or important political meetings. The topmost floor was hers, airy rooms that let in natural light and the summer warmth. In winter months Loki would charm a barrier to block out snowfall and the wind chill until Sigyn mastered the spell herself._

_That morning it was quite warm and breezy, and her rooms smelled of the marketplace far below her balconies. The formal attire Sigyn chose for that special occasion was a favourite of the Queens, a gift she had bartered from Alfheim in one of their trading deals._

_It was a dress of fluid blue and green silk dropping from her waist with lighter tones of fabric on the top which sprouted material from her shoulders that trailed on the floor in a shimmering blue-green pool. The breastplate covered half of her torso, hammered silver with a filigree design of green vines to imitate the specs of green in the two-toned silk._

_The dress was so exquisite that Sigyn decided to wear her clasped back in the seashell Thor had brought back from a voyage to Midgard with his father the last they travelled there. It was whitewashed with black specs of a stone she did not know the name for, but matched the darkness of her hair. Sigyn didn't own any jewellery, so didn't wear any. On her way to check on Loki, she picked up the book she had borrowed from him in order to return it._

_Gliding down the hall while flipping through the book, Sigyn did not notice the two men talking near the windows until one of them called out her name._

_"Lady Sigyn!"_

_Lowering the book and raising her eyes, she did a small curtsy to who she recognized as one of Odin's advisors accompanied by a man she hadn't seen in the palace before. Schooling herself to sound pleasant and not annoyed at this distraction she addressed them. "Mimir, what a pleasure. How fairs King Odin this morning?"_

_"He is well, but not quite as fair as you this morning. You look beautiful, my dear."_

_Mimir was a tricky man, Sigyn did not dislike him but he always put her stomach ill at ease._

_"This is my dear friend Theoric, a guest to witness the coronation."_

_Sigyn gave Theoric a small smile, "I apologise. I do not recognize you. Have you been at the palace long?"_

_"Norns no. My home is on Alfheim, as I hear so is yours." It was a slippery glint in his eye, catching her off guard. No man had looked at her such before and she found she was not speechless, but angered. She was not some palace maiden one could court with a sly smile which coincidentally mirrored his. Still, the acid in her tone went unnoticed. "I have not been there in a very long time. Asgard is my home now. I am sorry but I do need to be going,"_

_Sigyn turned to walk down the hall and for the life of her did not know why, when Theoric bid a pleasant farewell, did she pause briefly._

_She had a bad feeling coiling in her stomach and did not like the way both the men had leered._

_Walking back into Loki's rooms, Sigyn took a moment before opening the inner door. She could hear Thor and Loki having a decent conversation, which was not often these days. Before interrupting them, Sigyn left the book on the small table beside the doorway._

_Thor stood in armour and red cape, hair partly tied back with a leather cord. He had been wearing his hair longer with every passing year and soon enough it would be grazing his shoulders. Nothing had changed there, even his lopsided grin at Sigyn was still the same._

_"You are a vision, Lady Sigyn." Thor gripped her tight in a hug, lifting her off her feet._

_"Careful, brother, our Sigyn isn't one for hugging. She may curse your nose off."_

_Thor rolled his eyes and sat back on the bed. Loki, however, was nowhere in sight. Sigyn could not resist the taunt. "Shouldn't you be the one wearing a dress? It's not often you're the last of us ready." Thor winked at her wickedness before snickering._

_Thor was not one for waiting, and perhaps that was Loki's reason for dallying. "Loki you try our patience."_

_"No, Thor, let him preen. I am sure he looks every bit a prince."_

_Between Thor's giant bellows of laughter and her lighter than bells peel of giggles, Loki threw open the door and waited for them to be able to see through their watering eyes. "Happy, are we? You two look ridiculous."_

_If Loki was honest, Sigyn didn't look so foolish in her dress. It was a nice complement to her inherent elegance and eyes, the colour of a dark forest only shone brighter. Loki cleared his throat when Sigyn met his gaze._

_She smirked, "You don't look so ridiculous. It suits you," It did, the black criss-crossed leather armour only deepened the colour of his hair and paled his skin, gold-bronze gauntlets and green sleeves tight knitted and the inlaid gold of his jacket was stunning._

_Loki did not seem pleased. Thor caught on faster than Sigyn, which was unusual. "Brother, it is only for a day. You may get used to the look."_

_"Have you seen the helmet?"_

_Sigyn peeked beyond him and over the shoulder, where on the small table beside the claw-footed basin sat a golden helmet with curled horns, etched with a design she couldn't discern from that distance._

_To stop herself from laughing, Sigyn put a hand to her mouth. "It will make you look taller?"_

_Loki cursed Thor from his room after the thunder god fell off the bed in laughter._

* * *

_"Who is that man staring at you?"_

_Loki and Thor stood in the chamber off the throne room, the doors were open, revealing the guests taking positions at each side of the throne hall waiting for the King and Queen to be seated and start the ceremony._

_Theoric stood closest to the throne beside Mimir, casting overt glances at Sigyn, who had the honour of leading the princes to their father._

_Whispering behind her and turning her head but a little, "Theoric, he is from Alfheim. Mimir's guest. I met him this morning."_

_Thor said what Loki's face expressed. "He is too familiar."_

_"Thor, I am not royalty. Men may look at me how they please. If they do more than that, they will be on the ground."_

_"You would tackle him down?" From Loki's perspective this man looked Thor's size and without the quality of a kind face._

_Sigyn tapped his shoulder so he pulled his gaze from the man who now spoke in whispers to those around him, all waiting for the ceremony to begin. The hum in the grand hall was inspiring, laughter and even small songs from the children of the court as they raced between the two sides where they were gathered. "Ever the skeptic, Loki. Sif has been giving me lessons."_

_"That doesn't bode well."_

_"Hush, today you must act like princes."_

_"And tomorrow, barbarians." Thor's hopefulness almost broke the tentative smile she was trying to conceal._

_"Would you please-"_

_Their laughter and Sigyn's annoyance was short lived as the horns began playing. Odin and Frigga had seated themselves. It was much fanfare for a technicality, but that's how things were done in Asgard, Sigyn knew. While she walked gracefully down the steps and between the onlookers, most of them of the court and behind those gilded men and women stood some townsfolk, Sigyn calmed herself trying to recollect the little she remembered from Alfheim. Wide open fields with flowers in a millions shades in a sunlit bask, the dense forests and sparse rocky shores where grass met sand and blue skies met stormy seas. It was not as elegant or refined as Asgard, for her home had a brutal beauty she admired more._

_Sigyn caught Theoric's eye and couldn't help her smile. He reminded her of Alfheim, and even if Asgard was her home now, she could never forget where she'd come from._

_Asgard was where she had befriended Loki's brother and the Warriors Three, their adventures to other realms, and the promise of seeing Midgard one day._

_Before she knew where her feet took her, Sigyn stood alongside the Warriors Three and Sif on the steps of the throne as Loki and Thor bowed heads on bended knee to be crowned princes of Asgard._

_As Odin made his speech, most of which Sigyn caught none of, and Frigga looked on with pride, Sif got Sigyn's attention by pulling on the fabric of her cape. "I need your assistance."_

_Puzzled as to why, and curiosity getting the better of her every second she gauged Sif's pleading eyes, Sigyn nodded and they made their exit quietly through the back of the room, between the pillars to the outside balconies._

_"Is something very wrong?" She played innocent enough that many believed Sigyn to just be another woman, and not many knew her connection to Loki and Thor outside of the palace. Many of the townsfolk crowded around the balcony paid them no more mind than furtive glances._

_"One of the guards caught two assassins attempting to break into Thor and Loki;s rooms."_

_Sigyn immediately understood. "Loki and I enchanted the walls around their chambers, their feat should have been impossible."_

_"Which is why I'm telling you before you're questioned."_

_"Me, questioned?"_

_Sif looked just as appalled as Sigyn felt. "I know you would never endanger their lives by being careless. Nevertheless, we must investigate before things get out of hand."_

_"Where are the assassins?"_

_"Escaped. I had hoped you could track them."_

_"Who else knows?"_

_"Heimdall and the royal guards."_

_"Take me where they were last seen."_

_"Of course."_

* * *

_Sigyn had changed out of her gown and robes into something more suited to the seriousness of the situation. Outfitted almost like Sif, in silver breastplate and gauntlets, her dress black obsidian with black leather armour cross crossing her torso and in flaps covering her skirts. A dagger sheathed at the waist, and hidden in the metal clasp holding her hair back were small poison pins she had only used once before._

_Sigyn was not a fighter by nature, but could be as menacing as one._

_This time the guards did not smirk upon seeing her and did not make a comment as they escorted the women to the edges of the palace grounds where the back of the great city ended in winding dirt roads and the treeline towards the mountains beyond. Where two streams met was where the guards awaited their return, with warnings to do so or send word by nightfall._

_"Watch out for snake traps," Sif's lighthearted tone gave away how comfortable she was hiking the trails she had grown up running. Sigyn followed close behind, working her spell so her hands held a golden sheen of light, out in front of her as if shielding an attack, guiding their direction. The assassins had left a faint trail, one that smelled of ash and whetstone._

_"These men know how to cover their tracks." It was worrying. For a pair of assassins who had failed at murdering the princes and had been caught, they seemed more intelligent than that to Sigyn._

_It was when they passed a large felled tree, falle over in an arch by a clump of stones did Sigyn know wher the assassins had headed._

_Her abrupt stop had Sif spun around expecting danger, but only saw Sigyn's downcast eyes and clenched fists._

_"What is it?" The forest was quiet; all Sif could hear was a gurgling stream nearby and the soft chirps of birds overhead on the branches._

_"I believe I know who sent the assassins."_

_Sigyn pointed to where the tree seemed uprooted, and what shone beneath the moss looked like the rainbow bridge how it was hitting the setting sunlight. It was a pathway between Alfheim and Asgard, the same passage Sigyn and taken Loki through many years before while he had been blind and mute._

_"The assassins are from Alfheim."_

* * *

_Thor was always the one for entertainment, telling epic stories of their adventures, preferring the company of many to nudge him. That is always how it had been, and Loki was content to sit at the table and partake in the stories and revelry, until the point in the night where he would escape to the sidelines and talk with Sigyn or other few people who caught his interest. That night the halls were shining with mirth and drink, more food than even Thor's stomach could handle and enough women for them all tenfold._

_Loki only sought one. He had not seen Sigyn since the beginning of the ceremony and neither had the Warriors three. Idly roaming the halls she usually frequented, Loki found no trace of her in the armory or on the bench beneath the apple trees. Hazarding to walk into her private rooms, Loki found no fire burning to ward off the chilly night air or her bed disturbed._

_Loki's scrutiny passed her party dress, which had slipped to the gleaming floor beneath the chair when she had taken it off and casually flung aside._

_Loki gathered the party moved to the outer courtyards where lanterns were being sent into the air and mead handed around as if it were water. One of the lanterns rose above Sigyn's balcony, where Loki reached out a hand to catch it. Inside was a white pillar candle burning bright and smelling of spring water. The rivalry floating up with the dim lanterns brought a sense of calm._

_Letting go of the thin papery thing, he watched it until it was just as small as a star prick in the sky. Rooting though Sigyn's desk, Loki found a small purple candle with a silver wick, something he vaguely remembered as a purchase in the marketplace a few weeks prior. Grabbing another lantern that had the misfortune of floating within reaching distance, Loki replaced the white candle with the purple and set it alight with a spark of magic._

_It was the same purple as the plum trees which used to grow near Sigyn's village; it brought a smile to his lips._

_Loki decided to sit on one of the cushioned chairs adorning the balcony; lantern secured with twine to the low table beside him, and wait for Sigyn to return from wherever she had gone._

_"Brother!" The doors to Sigyn's chambers opened with a bang, the gilded wood colliding with solid brick. Startled awake, Loki put a hand up to keep the blinding sun from blocking his view of Thor stepping up the stone balcony steps where Loki had fallen asleep._

_"Father approved our plea to go hunting for a few days, to the forests outside the towns. He says it will be good to stretch our legs and work off our princely egos."_

_A quick glance to the bedchamber up a small step was the confirmation to Loki that Sigyn had decided not to wake him on her way out. She had always been an early riser._

_"If we must." Loki knew he could explain himself to her when they'd returned, Sigyn knew of Thor's impatience for the hunt and would forgive them for not inviting her._

* * *

A/N: Ta-da! Done. Next chapter will be all Earth. Thank you for the follows/favourites I really appreciate it and it fuels me to write more.


	6. Let's Try

**A/N: Sorry this took so long, work was hectic and a new apartment and all. Anyway, enough with excuses. This is a little longer because I felt bad for not updating in so long. I promise to try and keep the updates to every Friday.**

**Disclaimer: Still do not own Marvel, what a pity.**

* * *

_Let's Try _

_Not gonna fly man_, Clint said as much. He was as perceptive as Nat when it came to micro expressions but the looks he received on his evaluation of their plan couldn't be discerned.

Even Steve had an unreadable, debating look that put Clint on edge. If Captain America was indecisive… it meant trouble. Clint elaborated, "Fury isn't gonna let him leave this tower, you're already pushing it letting him roam with only JARVIS to watch."

"Lady Sigyn is with my brother, Barton." Thor reminded as if that ended the conversation. It certainly did not and the collective tension that had been accruing in the conference room shot up.

"Fury won't let him on the Helicarrier." It really was simple as that, but Clint had the nagging suspicion his own perspective was coming into play here. **_Be objective, Barton_**_._ "Not without clearance and I trust Sigyn but Fury's paranoia is a different animal." He refrained from pointing out he didn't trust Loki- that had been obvious ever since the fiasco of Loki almost blowing the tower to pieces.

"Hate to be the devil's advocate," _That_ received some exasperated looks, "but the bird's right." Tony shrugged. "I don't see One-Eye letting Loki on any flying machinery after what happened last year."

Thor's lack of disagreement gave Clint hope the thunder god could see reason enough why his friends were reluctant to just let Loki loose. Brothers they may be, but apparently family bonds at least ended with truth.

* * *

Once the illusion dissipated and Loki brought himself back from the realm of memories that seemed to never leave the periphery of his notice, did he realize Sigyn had been perched on a stool opposite him.

A glance at the clock informed him she had been there for the better part of the hour.

The concern of her eyes was recent. His movement alerted her. "Loki?" Fingers instantly stalled flipping the pages of a medical journal crammed with miniscule printed words and diagrams tightly packed with labels. She didn't feign an interest in the book even, as quick as she set it aside without marking her page. A sharp memory invaded his vision of a young woman emphatically demanding Loki wait until she had finished the lesson in their books before indulging his whim to torment Thor.

"Yes." He distractedly answered lest she become overly concerned with his lack of response.

"You seemed… distant. Are you still?" In her eyes shone hope he was not, but truthfully there was always a bitter reel playing in his mind of past things he wished not to remember so clearly, least of all with so much guilt making it hard to concentrate on anything presently happening.

He had forgotten why they were alone on Stark's medical floor when Sigyn began filling the roaring silence in his mind with chatter.

Talk was the only good thing she used her mouth for lately, in his strong opinion.

"You became pensive so quick I never got a chance to show you what I've returned with." His personal bag still sat on the table nearest the wall and she dragged it across the shining steel table before him.

Loki could tell she itched for him to open it. He allowed himself the small reprieve of his fingers resting over the carved designs in the leather before flipping the lip open and seeing very prominently the spine of a book.

Plain and black bindings keeping leafs of differently sized and dyed parchment together, a collection of recipes, drawings, designs and the like he had done over his youth.

One of the recipes he had written while sitting in the kitchens listening to the cooks berate the servants on what to do as opposed to what they'd done. Another was in Frigga's handwriting, smooth and constant over the page like rivers meandering through a glen.

The last document was something he wished had been left out when Frigga had bound the pieces for him. Upon seeing it he snapped the pages shut and set it aside with more care than he felt it deserved.

The rest were clothes, some ink and quills, salves and healing stones. Nothing of particular note, but still a token of Frigga's caring, and to an extent the woman who now sat across from him, her patience palpable and annoying.

Her eyebrows were arched a small bit, eyes glistening at the pages of the book she had found renewed interest in as fast as a fish has interest in breathing air.

"What news have you of Asgard?"

That mask of hers slipped in as if she had never left. "The season changes,"

"For one so observant that is hardly news."

* * *

Cassie was chewing the inside of her lip as the team debated what their best tactic would be, when something a little short of a good idea struck her as if it were the most obvious. It must have shown on her face, the only Avenger not arguing their action plan brought attention to her with all the grace of a disabled cow. "Lady Cassandra, if you have something to say, please." He gestured as if she could take command of the floor.

Thor's booming voice had done exactly that.

"Well… doesn't Sigyn have magic?"

That made Tony scoff but even Thor was used to it by then and paid no mind. "She used to, I am not sure if she still employs it."

Cassie took a deep breath, "Well… what if she were to go into patient X's room and… get more samples. Mr. Stark could temporarily disable SHIELD's ability to detect Asgardian magic, or the radiation it leaves," That was for Tony's peace of mind only, for even mentioning magic around him turned the man into a erratic five year old, "and put a tracker in the patient, get her own look and see if she can detect anything."

"You say the anatomy, or blood, is Jotun. Lady Sigyn has only come into contact with one."

"Exactly, she is used to the type of magic Loki uses as a disguise; she could tell us if it's the same."

They seemed to mull it over and Cassie allowed herself a small grin in victory. **_They might go for it,_** and the proud smirk Steve was staring at the floor with confirmed it.

Clint shrugged, and they all traded looks, almost enjoying her personal torture in the silence of their wordless debate.

Steve briefly closed his eyes and Cassie looked away quickly when they turned to her. "Well, I think you're the ring-leader here, Cassie."

"Thank you Lady Cassandra, I see why the Director tasked you with our care." Thor departed to the medical floor to update his brother and Sigyn.

Cassie thought it all done with and was preparing to go with Stark to his lab in the hopes he could create the specific tracker she had in mind, when Clint Barton asked Thor what seemed an innocent question but the answer was more information than they really wanted.

"Buddy, what's with the medieval 'Lady's all the time?" Clint was scrolling through the phone Tony had lent them all for emergencies, most likely about to inform Natasha of their plan.

"It is a term of respect for one whom you've had no intimate relations with." And Thor was back to the dumfounded look that screamed, _Midgardians and their lack of understanding_, as the elevator doors closed.

Bruce, who had been characteristically silent for most of the meeting burst into chuckling. It caused them all to chuckle in spite of the very apparent danger of Loki ever finding out they knew.

* * *

"Brother!"

Loki cringed, he and Sigyn had just been passing a comfortable few minutes in each others company, _Thor must ruin everything eventually, _but his thoughts held none of the bitterness his words might have had he spoken out loud. In lieu of advising Thor to remove himself from their presence, Loki gave him a smile.

Stopped in his tracks, the thunder god looked to Sigyn for reassurance Loki was not about to assassinate him, for that grin was a trickery in itself. "Have I interrupted?"

"Make no apology," Sigyn rose, making no noise, and gave Loki one last look but it held no meaning, "Is there a situation?"

"Yes. We need your assistance."

"You would." Loki's voice had rotted hollow, but nothing of his demeanor changed to match it. "Being domestic never suited you, Sigyn. Be wary not to linger on Midgard for long, keep in mind there are others who require your presence."

Without warning Loki left the table with a nod to Thor, "You know where to find me, brother." Taking his leave of them while JARVIS informed Loki if he wished for other company, Pepper Potts was in the penthouse.

Sigyn and Thor last heard Loki asking JARVIS if Lady Pepper wished to accompany him to the roof for fresh afternoon air.

In the instant the doors closed, Thor's eyes turned downcast and dim. A quick transformation from boyant brother to a worried prince. It seemed Loki was not the only one to be radically twisted into something else for all their past troubles. Thor was no longer the care-free brash young man, he had not only taken on responsibility of Loki, but an entire planet apart from Asgard. "How was returning home?" There it was, how Thor had changed summed up in four words that should not have sounded so false with only a sprig of happiness to hear of home.

She allowed a small smile at that, not wanting to bleed away his contentment with the sharp edge of her unsureness that Asgard had ever been home.

"Your mother worries for you both."

Sigyn hefted the small pack she'd retrieved into Thor's as he said, "She is right to. Loki still endures the effects of what the Chitauri have done, even after all this time."

"It will take more than time to heal. More than I alone can give."

The exact method they wished to heal him with was held between them by his roughened hands. memories of home, of something sweeter than pain and torture.

Or the company of a friend. Preferring to distract Thor from his muddled exasperation on how to deal with one who did not wish to be dealt with, Sigyn asked what use she could be of the Avengers.

"Doctor Williams has come up with a plan to get you onto the carrier and take more samples from this Jotun patient."

"Thor, you may not remember but my magic is not protective, if anything were to go wrong others than myself will be injured." This was not what Sigyn had thought he;d say. His expression was nothing close to the face Thor had used to coerce friends into going into battle.

This was one of need, not want.

They needed her to do this, and Sigyn sharp enough in her wits could guess it would be disastrous if she were to decline.

"I am to get samples. What of the Jotun? Are we to leave them there and endanger the lives of every human on that vessel?"

"We do not know the condition they are in. Only that they've been there for a number of months. He looks _human_." The word had a sour eing to it, as if Thor abhorred the very idea a Jotun would do such a thing. The only difference between this unidentified Jotun and Thor's own brother was that Loki had been kept in the dark about his origin as much as they.

Sigyn got an idea and called for JARVIS to bring them to where the others were gathered; as they boarded the elevator Sigyn hashed a plan in her mind.

"Is it a closed ward? If a fight would occur, how many innocents would be close by?" Sigyn feared her worry would show on her face, so she composed herself on the outside while inside, she was dreading this.

"It is a critical ward I am told. Treating patients who will not wake."

The elevator doors opened, and there stood the Avengers fo the first time Sigyn had seen clothed in their battle armour.

**_Armour is not the term on Midgard, _**for only Tony Stark wore protective alloy in the from of his suit. Sigyn approached them and at once their attention was caught by her entrance. She had not changed from her dress and robes, almost blinding in their bright gold and hues of silver only darkened by her ebony hair.

"I have just had a thought." Her voice carried, the only sound in the room except for the whirring of Tony's various lab electronics. "Loki did not realize he was not Asgardian, the Allfather and Queen Frigga cast a spell to disguise him when he was a child. He was never aware until touched by another of his kind. What if this patient is the same?"

"The lady has a point," Stark fitted the mask back on his helmet. "If this dude goes as crazy as Loki did when he found out, we could have a problem on our hands."

"We don't fully know what this patient is aware of either. Coma's adversely affect different races let alone beings from another planet. He could be aware of more than we think." Cassie's dark expression brought on the realization that they were essentially walking in blind. "but we also can't leave him to figure it out himself once he does wake."

"There's danger in either direction we choose, the question is which one are we more prepared to handle the consequences?"

Sigyns assessment of the situation got a thoughtful nod from Rogers. He picked up his shield and pulled his mask on. "I say we go for the sample." Clear blue eyes held Sigyn;s darker ones and she also nodded.

"Then you have my assistance." Her back was straight and her hands clasped in front of her, looking more a regal lady from another planet than the fearsome warrior Thor had mentioned she'd once been.

She was no Lady Sif and Sigyn tried not seeing that in everyone's expressions.

"Gladly I brought back essentials from Asgard. I only need know when we will be departing."

"About an hour, your support just touched down at the airport." Clint waved his phone as if that was proof of his implications.

"Support?"

"Natasha has been briefed." Steve winked at Sigyn and left out the side door into the hallway.

Thor was beaming. "Lady Natasha is an excellent choice." He patted Sigyn on the shoulder to lead her to the spare rooms Pepper had set up earlier that week. "You are much alike."

Sigyn grimaced, **_as a tree is alike with the mushroom growing in its shadow._**

* * *

**A/N: So, to go along with this chapter I am posting another very soon… probably today. I've just been waiting for the right time to incorporate it.**

**Hope you enjoyed! G**


	7. Incomplete

**A/N: A little accompaniment to the other chapter I posted today, as an apology for time between updates being so long. I was waiting for the right time to put this into the story so here you go. Enjoy.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel but it owns me.**

* * *

_Incomplete_

**_This is a prison_**, their smiles and words came out wrong, or he heard them wrong. That could be the case as he knew the mind the Chitauri left him with was bereft with insanity most of the time.

Escape from them was his only solace, or the very idea of it. Loki knew once he had removed hiself from their warm presence, he would be attacked by memories that had been tampered with.

Or he hoped they were for the past he had lived couldn't be one so painful. even doubting himself was a ripple effect from what The Other had intended. **_My doubt only plays into his hands._**

Loki's hesitance was a curse so instead, he said the only thing he was sure of in that moment, that the steely gaze Sigyn blessed him with looked wrong. It did not suite her to be his caretaker.

That he was sure of. "Being domestic never suited you, Sigyn." **_She used to have blood on her lips, _**flashes of her in battle bombarded him like enemy fire when those images were anything but threatening. "Be wary not to linger on Midgard for long, keep in mind there are others who require your presence." **_Your husband, for one. _**He shot up from his stool, feeling the sweet tendrils of breathable air where none other occupied it. The roof, perhaps.

Still memories flashed in his vision, the disembodied voice he knew as his own saying, "You know where to find me, brother."

Escaping into the elevator brought a barrage of other noise, the voice of JARVIS, "Miss Potts is in the penthouse if you wish for company."

"I will be on the roof if she wishes to speak with me." Loki closed his eyes for the doors were not swift enough for his liking, and Sigyn's unbloodied face only haunted him.

She looked too worn to be herself, not suited to standing around and waiting for him to get better when he knew, among these metallic tasting memories, she was nothing of the sort.

She was fierce but no longer raw with it…how he wished her to have remained.

**_Yet I owe her my life however corrupt it has become._**

* * *

_Many years before..._

_Sigyn picked up a branch as short and thin as her arm, whacking it against tree trunks as she ran. The sky had begun to darken with the suns descent, but it had left the soil of the fields comfortably warm. Sigyn let her bare feet soak up the warmth, feeling it as clear as an animal's involuntary cry in the distance. It stopped her heart and the breeze, rustling of grass and branches just an echo in the distance._

_The wind carried the cry in short bursts._

_Yet she knew of no animal that could make such desperate a call. It was muffled like smoke in a pit with enough terror to make Sigyn take a few steps back into the cover of the treeline. Another painful moan and Sigyn scooted further into the growing forest shadows. _

_"__Hello?" Nothing on the horizon looked threatening, no gigantic beast that she could see from her place among the brush which grew no shorter than her head._

_She knew the time to be scared was not then. _**It is a small dog**_, and so while she chastised herself for thinking an animal could speak, Sigyn crept along the treeline closer to where she'd heard it cry._

_The elders always educated that animals could tell your intentions from your tone, so trying to be as soothing as possible; Sigyn called out, "I won't hurt you, whatever you are. Keep making noise."_

_It would be dark soon, and the woods would be black with shadow no moonlight could penetrate when the sun went away. Sigyn kept the stick in her hand, ever fearful of vagrants roaming the woods as they were want to do sometimes. She knew she was only young and small, and if it came to it would scamper into the trees at the first sign of trouble. Unlike many in her village, she would not resort to standing her ground and fighting, for she was no fool to think she could take on anyone._

_Unless it was another young child, like the one she suddenly realized had been making such awful noises. She first saw his silhouette against the large oak tree, hands tied with cord and something hanging into his face from the uppermost branches. She could smell acidity in the air, almost citrus but with a burning sting to it. _

_Whatever hung in the boy's face hissed madly and spit at him to produce another low howl from him._

_Sigyn picked up the stick she had dropped in her jolt of shock. The boy had not seen her yet, and she saw with the last fading rays of sunlight he could not see through the white veins clouding his vision and his lack of pupils._

_The snake was attempting to burn the boy's eyes out with venom. That was enough to put a knot in her chest, but the injury responsible for rendering Sigyn speechless was the erratically woven thread holding his mouth shut._

_Without thinking on her actions and still prone to childish impulse, Sigyn charged at the large serpent and whacked it out of the tree with a stick, "Take that, vile thing!" With the butt end of her makeshift weapon stuck its head into the ground. The bile rose up her throat at the sickening squish it made like stepping into a puddle after a rain. _

_Sigyn fell back after losing her balance, and the stick stayed upright in the soil, having pinned and killed the creature._

_The boy was frozen in shock, then wiggling with renewed fear that there was another who could mean him harm. "Hold on!" Sigyn scrambled towards the back of the tree and untied the cord, releasing the boy like a spring shot from a net once the tension was let._

_Sigyn peered from around the large round trunk. "Can you hear me?"_

_The boy inclined his head, peering over his shoulder with unseeing eyes that still sizzled with burns and poisonous white marks. There was crusted blood around his mouth, and he had put a hand to it. _

_"__I'm not going to hurt you. Can-"_

_His clothes, they had been concealed by the thick ropes before, but now she saw how he was dressed. Fine, thick autumn clothes suited to a prince, gold hem on the green tunic and dark pants along with the cloak, still dirty but not enough to shield the design on its back…_

_"__Oh, no... how did you get so far from Asgard?" She realized her stupidity with his attempt at a withering look in her general direction, his gaze missing her by a few feet, and her eyes looking on his mouth. She went to him, crouched, and put a gentle hand on his shoulder. With his finger, he was writing something in the dirt. To her, it was just lines, and then her mind caught up with what he was trying to do. _

_"__I can't read."_

_He acknowledged her with a nod, and pointed to his lips._

_"__Want me to try and get that out?"_

_His nod was quick._

_When she first touched the skin near his mouth, he was startled. she paused to wait for him to get accustomed to her cool skin and then proceeded to do the best she could pulling the thread through his lips and out. They bled anew, and with it came clear fluid and saliva. She cared not for the cleanliness for her hands but kept her eyes open for someone to help- or those who had done this to a little boy._

_She went slow and after a few minutes had removed all of the thread. The small hide flask on her hip had little water but she offered it anyway, "I have some water." Before she could put it in his shaking hand, he moaned in pain as the threads appeared again, by magic._

* * *

_Her voice was soft as a whisper, but Loki knew his senses may have been damaged by the poison which had eroded his vision and ability not to treat every sound as potential danger. Except even as she had shouted from across the glen at the serpent, it brought something more than alarm that another stranger was near._

_Something about her presence struck a familiar note with Loki, his instincts, which he was taught to always trust, spoke well of this honeyed voiced girl. He assumed she had finished the snake because her breathing was rapid and her words quick. Was she injured? Apparently not. She had undone his bindings and he shot forward with the tension he had created in trying to escape, before catching his own breath._

_She spoke still, and as if through fog her words walked closer to invade his mind. _

_He could smell her, a mixed fragrance of crushed leaves and oils. He felt her hand on him and flinched, not realizing that to take away his ability to speak and see had also made him anxious to any contact._

_The girl knew better, obviously, for she withdrew her hand. Her breathing had slowed, and to dull the pain he matched his to her rhythm. _

_She had asked him a question, but he couldn't remember what it had been, her words still hung in his head mixed and confusing. _

_He needed to know her name. He began writing his name in the dirt as best he could when his hopes of communication were forfeit. "I can't read."_

_She sounded as desolate as he felt. _

_Well then he hoped she could at least take simple direction. He pointed to his mouth, painfully sewn closed and even the slightest twinge wreaked havoc on his nerves._

_"__Want me to try and get that out?"_

_He nodded, _**No, by all means leave it in**_. He was pleased he could not cut her down with words just then, for he truly needed help and was not fool enough to act like his prideful brother and decline assistance._

_The girl was smart, and those thoughts entangled him as she attempted to remove the strings. She had observed him and concluded he was from Asgard by the clothes he wore. She was brave, or stupid, to have attacked such a giant creature. Before it poisoned his vision and mind, he had gotten a glimpse of the giant snake, more of a beast really. _

_She had courage, and for a girl was not squirmy around injuries. Loki could only imagine the state his mouth was in. He could feel the blood dripping down his chin and feel the burn on his face from the poison._

_He must look a wreck._

_"__I have some water," She announced after he felt the last tug of thread at the corner of his mouth._

_Before he felt the flask in his hand his world tore open as his mouth was sewn shut again. It was dull compared to the first time they'd done it; Loki's spirits were drowned more than his physical situation because this meant he wouldn't be able to talk until he got home._

_How to communicate he was a prince of Asgard if the girl couldn't read?_

**She is all I have at the moment**_; he had no choice except to trust her._

* * *

None of that he could see in her now. **_She returned completed._**

Loki had aged with Thor and experienced much of the same, molding them into opposites but they still shared most of their memories, choices, dislikes.

Sigyn had left their company too early, and had come back whole enough it was hard for Loki to glimpse something recognizable. Perhaps he couldn't only because he had been torn into too many pieces.

**_This is for the best, _**or else he would dissect her every word, every movement as he did Thor's, no mystery to be left behind.

**_I can only return the favour. She cannot stay here. _**Loki had made up his mind, **_she must return to Alfheim for her own protection_**.

* * *

**A/N: First Thor wanted Sigyn to stay on Alfheim for her own protection, and now Loki. Sigyn can protect herself as you'll see next Friday. **

**G**


	8. Tenth Hour

A/N: Here you go!

Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel. I only play with its characters.

The air of reserve hung around Sigyn like the ends of a spider web, almost there but not quite noticeable if you weren't looking for it. A glitch in your surroundings. Doctor Banner kept his eyes on his work after Sigyn had been observing him from the chair and commented that for such a nice man she would not make him angry by not cooperating as they ran tests.

Cassie was doing a physical and he, reading specific radiation signatures. The charts running across the screen told him her markers fell in line between Thor and Loki's, quite distinctive.

"What are your healing abilities? I've seen Thor take a shot to his torso and barely flinch."

If that were the case he could let out a sigh of relief. If anything were to happen to Sigyn they weren't sure how long response time would be if they all weren't on the Helicarrier. Having Natasha by her side was a comfort although very little- even the Black Widow got injured most of the time. Being a deadly assassin gave no quarter if a bomb went off. Bruce shook himself of those disturbing thoughts and focused on his computer screen, vaguely noting Sigyn was answering his question.

"I am able to heal myself if I concentrate enough. But I am not Asgardian, Doctor. Unlike Thor, if I were to lose consciousness before healing I would most likely die if the wounds were severe enough."

Bruce held off on inquiring further on her grave tone of voice, probably a story behind her warning. It was hard keeping his eyes on her, imagining what growing up with the Odinson brothers was like.

Bruce had met Sif, and Sigyn was nothing like her. in looks or attitude. Sigyn had been sitting there patiently for the past hour as they'd run tests, not bothering with questions. Sif on her first visit to the tower which has been her last, almost tore their heads off when they tried taking a blood sample.

Needles weren't a thing on Asgard apparently.

There Sigyn sat with electrodes monitoring every bodily function and she did not flinch or ask questions about the needles or machinery. Bruce had to wonder if this was her first time on Earth.

Bruce didn't realize he was staring until Sigyn's raised eyebrow at him turned to Cassie, standing on the other side of the room with her own computer screen. "I have never seen results this bizarre."

"I am not normal?"

The dejection and acceptance in her tone clued Bruce in that Sigyn might have suspected it before. What was normal for her race was probably on a wide spectrum like theirs was and differentiated between individuals. "We haven't had a chance to study someone from Alfheim. Asgard and Jotunheim, of course," her words were distracted and Cassie pulled the handheld monitor over to them, showing them the readings. "And the Chitauri…" The hitch in her voice made Bruce send her a warning look.

Bruce didn't care much about readings, watching for the woman's reaction to the information. Sigyn was studying them as if she knew what they said. What Jane Foster had reported, they had some of the same scanners just a different application method.

With a clearing of her throat Cassie continued, "But you're different. Did your parents have any illnesses? You're immune system looks compromised."

Back to looking at the screen, Cassie didn't catch Sigyn's long stare at the wall. Bruce tried reassuring her, "It might look bad to us only because we compare it to our own biology, right Cassie?"

His persuasive inflection sent Cassie into a spiral struggling for an apology, almost stammering. "He's right, yes." Placing the monitor on the desk she rolled her chair over and gestured to Bruce to start taking the electrodes and wires off Sigyn. "Were both your parents from Alfheim?"

"I was an orphan and I was never curious."

* * *

"Are you sure about this?" Pepper dogged Tony around the king bed and stopped with him at the mirror. "What if something goes wrong and someone gets hurt?" Her words didn't register until Tony turned away from her reflection and really looked at his girlfriend.

"Pep, she can handle herself." Tony tried not to look smug guessing who she had been worried about. It seemed he hit the mark when she fidgeted with the hem of her blouse.

"If something were to happen," Her careful look flipped to something else before Tony could comment and as usual she chose something else to fret over.

Such as why he was wearing a suit and securing a tie around his neck as if he was going to a board meeting. Which was impossible, she knew, Tony Stark never went to board meetings.

That was _her_ responsibility when Tony felt more like meandering around the Tower fiddling with his ongoing projects. Lately, in he company of Bruce. Those two most nights were inseparable and it had led to some dinner being had in the lab.

Pepper had quickly cut that tradition out when she found a small thousand dollar microchip in her pasta one night.

"She looks like she could fight her way out of anything. Hell, not even Loki argued with her about this, probably the smartest thing he's done in a while." His muttering was cut off by Pepper stepping between his reflection and helping with the pale blue tie.

"Both of them feel they've lost a brother." Her mutter was barely heard and Tony's hand stopped playing around with different watches he couldn't decide on wearing. "And I get the feeling, Tony, that they haven't seen her in a _really_ long time."

Pepper had a soft spot for Thor, his easy nature and conversation in the early mornings was a blessing. He had even helped in negotiations between Stark Industries and their medical suppliers once, by accident, but it was a happy one. Ever since Thor helped rescue Steve and Tony a few months before when they'd gotten into trouble and came all the way from Asgard. Pepper had been warming up to him, Thor was family, and perhaps Loki deserved the same chance.

"I don't want anything to disturb the peace."

Tony said nothing and that was his answer.

Pepper went back over to the bathroom to finish putting in her other earring. If Tony was going to the office she sure as hell would follow. He may be a genius but around the office he could be a disaster. A hand was suddenly on her shoulder, "Hey it's not for another two days until the Helicarrier is in range for JARVIS when it lands in D.C."

As if that was a big reassurance. It should have been. Pepper thought about Loki, right now in the kitchen according to what JARVIS had said. Hearing about Loki just biding his time in the kitchen with Sigyn when something could go wrong had set her worries into a tail spin.

"What's your role? Promise me, Tony, that if anything goes south-"

"That I haul my ass right towards the trouble, I know."

She offered a small smile and followed him into the hall towards the penthouse. Even before they reached the staircase to the kitchen Pepper heard raised voices. Thor's and Sigyns. Where was Loki?

Not there, it was just the two gods with Natasha witnessing their quarrel over a bowl of cheerios looking every bit jet lagged. pepper had noticed that in the Tower, Natasha had been slowly letting her guard down around them.

Pepper offered to make coffee, trying to tune out the voices. If they'd been speaking English then maybe she'd intervene. It was not a language she recognized.

As perceptive as ever, Nat clued her in, "It's Norwegian. I think."

"Do you know what they're saying?" pepper took a seat a the island counter just as Sigyn held up a hand for Thor to stop speaking. What a surprise, he did and let her carry on in the same tone.

"Something about her and a husband. They mentioned Loki about an hour ago but it's dissolved since then."

"Where is Loki?" Pepper craned her neck but he wasn't sitting in the breakfast nook past the dining room table either. He had vanished. "JARVIS said he was here…"

Natasha threw her a look. "He was. Whatever they were saying he didn't like." Pointing out to the balcony attached to that floor, with doors at both ends, alerted pepper to Loki sitting cross-legged in front of the glass railing and Steve as company. Or watch dog, but Pepper didn't like thinking about that.

It looked like they were having a conversation. Pepper didn't like how Loki's shoulders were hunched or the softening look Steve wore. Just days ago Steve was still unsure of Loki but tolerating it.

The shouting vaguely got louder and Pepper decided she couldn't just ignore it. As if a message sent by the universe, Thor said Loki's name amid a string of other words and Pepper marched right over.

Tony looked up from his Stark tablet suddenly interested. Natasha even stopped eating her cereal.

"Thor, Sigyn. If you are going to argue, do it in a language we all understand or go somewhere private." Her gaze was torn between the two on the balcony and the two she had just stepped between.

Thor and Sigyn followed her gaze, taking her hint in stride. Sigyn for her part kept her eyes downcast, "I apologise Miss Potts. For now the discussion is ended." A scathing look to Thor and Sigyn departed into the elevator.

Thor looked too disturbed to say much and took the staircase exit, not even a glance in Loki's direction. Maybe he couldn't bring himself too, Pepper didn't know.

Natasha nodded at her when she sat back down and Tony just open-mouthed stared. "You just told two very powerful gods to go to their rooms."

"Didn't even blink," Nat added.

Pepper hadn't even given their status a thought, or the possibility they'd pummel her into the ground. She had been thinking about Loki and how his persistence at being solitary and acting above any pain he may feel meant he would take the anguish. Mental or physical.

Either way, Pepper wouldn't have that kind of thing in the Tower, not after Loki had endured that and much more in Asgard and at the hands of the Chitauri.

Instead of mentioning this, Pepper shouldered her bag and pulled out her phone. "Tony, I'm going to be late and I think you are too."

Natasha for all of her skills must have then noticed that Tony was devoid of his usual jeans and band shirt, not even covered in grease or have the odour of experimental chemicals. She gave him an appraising eye. "Something I should know about?"

Tony winked, "Just a little talk with Fury, nothing major."

Pepper should have guessed. With one last glance to Loki, "We'll be back later tonight. Any special dinner requests, phone my office? I'm sure you remember the number."

Natasha nodded. "No need to worry, I'll keep an eye on him." With a wink Natasha ventured outside after grabbing the box of cheerios from the cupboard.

Pepper last saw her offer the box to Loki before the elevator doors shut.

"Thor is hiding something."

"Aren't we all?" Tony answered, gesturing to the camera in the elevator for JARVIS to bring them to the lobby.

Tony didn't seem concerned so Pepper was once again the one to make the executive decision to find out what they were hiding from Loki.

* * *

The sun was warm, cut only by the chilly breeze blowing over the balcony. This high over New York, there were no buildings to block the airflow, and the congestion and noise of the city below seemed more of a nuisance than a hinder this high above. Natasha could see why Loki preferred it outside- no claustrophobic walls that might remind him of being locked up.

It made her wonder how long he had been locked inside without any fresh air, or freedom. Too long.

Without saying anything, she stood next to Loki, Steve on the other side and put the box of cereal level with his eyes.

Loki blinked the box into focus and looked up. "Romanoff." he sounded suspicious.

Steve sounded amused. "It's breakfast cereal. Surprised Tony has the heart healthy brand." Steve obviously had a hard time keeping a straight face saying that one.

"Yes Rogers you're hilarious." Turning back to Loki she set the box on the slate floor between them, "You need to eat something other than bread and water."

"I need nothing else." His eyes flicked form the box back to the skyline just above far off buildings blocking their view of the water.

"You can't lie to me."

"Or anyone else apparently." That held some acid in it, but Natasha decided to leave it alone for her own good. Loki was still a powerful god even if he'd been lately deactivated. Truthfully Natasha didn't want to test the range of his ability before he gained her trust.

So far she was gauging the others reactions and moldering her own after that, just to be safe. If she didn't, Natasha knew Loki wouldn't be staring at her with such interest.

He'd be more wary.

"Do any of you have other occupations? I do not need to be watched."

"Be glad we're not forcing you to stay inside." Natasha knew it- by his reaction, the enlarged pupils and silent intake of breath that was exactly why he liked spending hours on the balcony or roof.

She hadn't lost her touch and that came with the ill feeling she always got when she was right about something horrible.

Sometimes she wished she didn't have such an imagination or the experience to put pieces like that together.

Not like Steve, who for all of his intelligence looked confused why Loki should be glad of his captors were at least being humane. He knew first hand not everyone was as nice to prisoners, World War II and all, but he was obviously taken back by her bluntness.

Cassie had briefed Steve the night before on the injuries Loki sustained during his time between then and the alien invasion.

Probably before that, because the Chitauri had to persuade him somehow.

Again, Natasha inwardly grimaced at those images, concocted by her own memories. It was a far cry from what Loki had been involved with, all she could do was imagine and wished she would never find out.

She didn't want to think of Loki as a friend. Ally, for the time being, but sympathy wasn't something she wanted a part of.

"Is this city always loud?"

Even as high as they were, sounds of traffic and pedestrians permeated the air, echoing off the wind.

"Pretty much." Steve shrugged. "It's always been like that." They listened to the sounds of the city for a few more minutes, and with a warm tone Steve asked what Asgard sounded like. What it was like.

Touchy subject but Natasha was also curious so she didn't tell Steve to lay off. The man was probably taking comfort in the fact New York hadn't changed much since his time, still loud and busy. Maybe he wanted to give the same to Loki, trying to get him to remember better times.

"Asgard was nothing like this."

Conversation closed, Loki took the cheerio box and began testing it one by one.

"I didn't poison it," Natasha took a handful, to prove her point.

Steve and Loki watched and waited for her to keel over, or start frothing at the mouth, she wasn't sure. "Really, boys?"

Loki turned to Steve. "If these are harmful she may have built an immunity to the specific poison." He held the box between them, tilted at Steve to tempt him to take some. His words didn't tempt Steve's appetite.

One second and he had popped a handful into his mouth. Steve trusted Natasha to an extent. Outright murdering them in broad daylight and in the Tower no less wasn't her style. Natasha smiled.

"See? Harmless."

"The cereal is, yes." Loki's lips pulled up a little and Natasha stared, dumbfounded.

He was making fun of her. "Well, I never," Her mock offence sent Steve smiling, and they finished the entire box of cereal before Loki spoke.

"Romanoff,"

Natasha forgot he had spoken until a small poke on her knee made her flinch. Loki pulled back immediately and stood up, and without a word dropped the empty box and went inside.

Steve stood to follow but Natasha shook her head, waited until Loki was out of sight and said, "That was my fault, I'll go."

"What happened?" Steve had dozed off, woken when Loki sprang up like he had been shot from a canon.

"Not sure, nothing good." Natasha went to follow.

* * *

**A/N: There you go! I might update before next Friday due to having cut this chapter in half so I may post the rest later. Hope you enjoyed! G**


	9. Adapting

**A/N: Didn't update as soon as I wanted but at least it's only a day late. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Don't own Marvel but I do own the broken heart it gave me.**

* * *

_Adapting_

Loki was damaging to himself and others, of that Natasha was sure. He wouldn't outright harm any of them, but as the incident last week with Clint that ended up with half of the floor being leveled; even the smallest change could set Loki off.

Natasha knew she just contributed to whatever Loki mind had occupied his thoughts with and even more- the look Loki gave her she hadn't seen before. The look felt wrong and it had upped her adrenaline to find him. It pushed her into manually searching the floors he was known to go when JARVIS interrupted her ascent to the roof. "_Mr Odinson is in the gym Agent Romanoff."_

Sheepishly and kicking herself for not thinking of asking JARVIS- always one to rely on herself- Natasha waved to the elevator camera for JARVIS to take her there. "Thanks,"

"_Anytime_," Only Tony had the ability to program JARVIS to sound smug. Maybe the A.I was rubbing off on him.

Loki certainly was in the gym, sitting behind a stack of floor mats with his eyes closed. It was dim, every second light on while it wasn't in use. Usually JARVIS would turn them all on if it were occupied. Natasha guessed Loki wanted them left off.

She made sure not to approach silently and made enough noise with scuffing her boots on the cork flooring to alert him. Startling Loki wasn't advantageous with just the two of them.

She wouldn't underestimate him, and in turn hoped that after his cooperation on the Helicarrier last year he wouldn't do the same.

All a game to him most likely, but the way he was frowning slightly and how his eyelids only fluttered when she came closer alerted her that maybe sitting beside him wasn't the best idea.

It might even be her last. Natasha stopped at the edge of the mats, leaning against them.

"Loki,"

Sharp eyes rested on her and closed again. "Romanoff. What do I owe the pleasure?"

He sounded spent, voice hoarse and eyes heavy to open. She recognized the look. Exhaustion.

"I came to apologize." Even to her that sounded wrong, and tasted worse. Good thing his eyes were closed because her face she knew betrayed her.

"Liar,"

**_There goes that plan_**.

"Okay you want the truth?"

"Only fair if you desire the same from me."

"Fine," She sat opposite him and he opened his eyes a little wider. "I followed you to make sure you weren't going to blow anything up."

"I assure you I will not," His dead stare wasn't really making her feel so sure he wouldn't.

"Right." She drawled, not liking how pale he had turned since sitting on the balcony. He seemed to swallow hard and then close his eyes again, body as rigid as when she'd come in.

The moment Natasha began thinking of calling Cassie to examine him, Loki twisted and retched onto the floor. She shot out to hold him up else he would have fallen and smacked his head on a nearby bench.

"Loki," She intoned, watching closely as his eyes fluttered.

He faintly responded with a mumble but then collapsed back against the mats.

"JARVIS?!" She would not panic, no. Loki wasn't responding to her shaking his shoulders, and the fever coming off him in waves was noticeable.

"_Doctor Williams and Odinson are on their way, Agent Romanoff." _

"Good thing _you_ at least pay attention." She had undercover as a field nurse for god sake's she knew she should have realized the signs of malnourishment and sleep deprivation. "Loki, come on, I'm gonna get blamed for this and then you'll have bigger issues to worry about, you hear? Loki!" She hissed, but nothing.

The elevator doors opened and there Cassie was hair a mess and face strained with her medical bag and Thor behind her.

**_Not good._**

Instead of rounding on her he only went straight for Loki, "Brother," took his chin in one of his hands as Cassie assessed what had happened. The doctors face only darkened, ordered Thor to pick him up and follow them to the medical floor.

Natasha got up to follow but thought better of it and just stood there by the mats.

**_Not concerned._** SHIELD had given their orders to watch Loki and if need be protect him, because they'd made a deal with a very powerful god. Although Natasha couldn't see Odin caring if Loki did die, he had obviously given little thought about his sons wellbeing when he had locked him in a cell after being tortured a few years.

It made Natasha's own upbringing pretty mundane.

**_I do not care. He's the mission._** It was with that thought Natasha took the stairs up three floors to follow them. **_Do your job Romanoff, no room for sentiment._** All of that fell away and left her mind blank when she came into the room and Loki was seizing, blood trickling from his ears.

Thor was staring murderously at the wall and trembling with hardly contained restraint as Cassie and a harried Bruce tried figuring out what was happening.

"I don't want to give him a sedative it might do more harm than good. Damn," Bruce took a deep breath as soon as Loki stopped seizing on his own, but the blood coming from his ears and nose heralded more problems. "We need a complete brain scan."

Cassie was on it, dragging over the mobile CT machine and ordering both Natasha and Thor from the room, to the other side of the wall. Last Natasha saw was Cassie putting on a led vest. Bruce said he didn't need one, and the door clicked shut.

The hall was silent save for Thor's heavy breathing.

**_Say something before he does,_** "I don't know what happened." It wasn't reassuring but it was the only thing she could think to say. Thor was not the barbarian with the pea brain everyone sometimes thought. He was pretty smart. Especially when it came to Loki and Natasha hoped he could draw his own conclusions.

"Loki believes showing weakness is a disadvantage. That being injured is somehow beneath him. This was not your doing, Natasha."

She almost chocked on her words, "It wasn't yours either."

"He is my responsibility. I am just glad Tony saw what I did not and is having him watched."

Natasha nodded vaguely and sat in one of the hall chairs, not knowing why she didn't want to leave. Truly she was indifferent but Fury would want a report- Loki was technically a prisoner of SHIELD, and that meant reports to fill out.

**_Might as well stay._**

If Thor was curious why she settled in to wait he didn't comment. He took the chair opposite, and Natasha hung her legs over the arm of hers.

"Thank you Natasha."

She opened one eye followed by the other. "Hmm?"

"For putting aside your qualms about my brother," His words somehow meant more, but Natasha quickly forgot to look deeper into it.

"Someone has to be indifferent around here. I'm good at that."

A few minutes of silence passed before the door opened. For what it was worth, neither of them moved and Natasha had to give Thor some credit. He was obviously worried but trying not to show it.

Perhaps years of worrying about his brother had schooled him to have a level head in these situations. Natasha could only guess Loki had survived worse whereas Thor was sure of that fact.

It was Bruce. "He's stable. We don't know what happened."

Slowly Natasha sat up, "Don't worry doc, you did what you could." It wasn't cold, just trusting. Natasha knew Bruce actually cared for Loki enough to feel bad. He would have done everything in his power.

Thor thanked Bruce and they both watched him go down the hall to the lab, carrying some samples on a tray.

Thor went in and Natasha stopped at the door, leaning against the frame.

Loki was entombed in white blankets with a curtain halfway closed around the gurney. Machines beeped a low melody.

Cassie came over and kept her voice low. "His brain activity is off the charts. He's dreaming but it's deeper than that. We tried waking him but…"

Loki was still unconscious. Even with Thor sitting so close and the way the trickster had been acting lately that would have woken him immediately. No response.

"He's not dreaming." **_He's reliving what they did to him. _**

Cassie grimaced. "Yes, well, there's not much else I can do except dose him with adrenaline and hope that wakes him."

**_Do we want him to wake?_** It could go one of two ways; he'd either go berserk and lash out or remain unresponsive, both outcomes not good for different reasons. Natasha stopped Cassie before she walked away. "Don't give him anything yet, I need to talk with Fury." She had a tower full of people she was responsible to protect from Loki. "Monitor him, and if he wakes alert me and Barton. Understand?"

"Of course."

As soon as she was in the hall she dialed the Director. "We need to talk."

"I'm busy Romanoff." He sounded bored and tense, an odd combination for him.

Natasha inwardly sighed, "Tell Stark this is more important. Something happened with Loki."

Immediately his tone of voice changed, "My office in twenty."

"On it," she disconnected and dialed Clint. He picked up on the first ring, just as she was walking out to the lobby. She gave a small wave to the receptionist on her way into the street.

"Nat?" He sounded confused.

"Yeah, something went down with Loki-"

"Anyone hurt?" His tone was accusatory but level.

"No one except Loki. I have Cassie on alert that if anything changes to let us know. I'm headed to Fury's office I suggest you meet us there."

"Sounds fun, I'm in." Clint hung up.

Natasha had parked a few blocks from the Tower in a parking lot between two apartment buildings. The landlord still thought she lived there so she paid the parking fees. Better than housing her car in Stark's garage with the danger that an enemy would disable it.

Natasha felt safer having a vehicle off site.

She arrived at the New York SHIELD offices in ten minutes, almost giddy that she had obeyed all traffic laws that time. Clint would be astonished.

"Hey," he was already there waiting by the main entrance with the added benefit of a coffee. Black with two sugars.

"Didn't hear any reports of police chases on the freeway. How'd you get here so fast?"

"Took fifth." And cut through some underground garage parking but there was no need to tell _him_ that. She briefed him in the elevator, skimming over some details but he got the point.

"Damn I thought he was doing better."

The air caught in her throat. She took a sip of coffee. "Yeah?"

"Didn't meant it like that." Of course not, Clint wasn't known for his soft-spots when it came to people who had mind controlled him into committing mass murder. "It's just…" They got off the elevator and he lowered his voice, seeing Fury pacing through the frosted glass that made his office door. "If he was getting better it means we could actually go on missions again."

Natasha reserved her comment and knocked before opening the doors. She got the hint that's not the entire reason Clint wanted Loki to recover.

Loki had been mind controlled too.

"Director,"

"So? Do we need to lock him somewhere more secure?"

Natasha explained while Clint kept his mouth shut, fidgeting on the couch beside her. He stopped when she was finished.

Fury unclasped his hands and sat back in his chair. "Well, that's unfortunate." He was choosing his words carefully. "Alert me if anything changes. Guard him like you've been doing and be careful about it. This Other hasn't been caught yet, I don't want anything cropping up that we have to deal with."

His fear was understandable. The Other could still be influencing Loki, they just couldn't be sure and that created problems.

On their way back Clint tailed her and parked beside her vehicle. It was just after two by then and they decided to pick up lunch to take back with them.

"Fury didn't say what Stark was talking to him about."

"No," Natasha told the girl behind the counter to grab an assortment of deli sandwiches for take-out and turned to Clint. "Find it odd?"

"No, but if Tony was telling him of our plan's for patient X I want to know how much he said."

"I don't think Stark would do that…" Actually it was exactly Tony's style. Make something up about them being busy with something else, tracking Doom or someone else to get Fury's eye off them for the time being.

The Helicarrier would be in D.C the next day.

Clint raised a doubtful eyebrow and they went back to the Tower. JARVIS interrupted their conversation about which one got the turkey with cheese just as they entered the kitchen. "_Agents' Barton and Romanoff, Doctor Williams requires your presence on the medical floor."_

**_That was quick_**, she dropped the plastic bag into the fridge and took the stairs down to the medical floor, leading Clint to the room Loki was in.

Cassie stood outside its closed door. "I don't know what happened," She didn't look worried per se. Raised voices from beyond the door didn't sit well with any of them.

* * *

Weighted to the bed by his own weakness, Loki listened to the room before daring to breathe easily. Last he remembered was the Widow's face swimming about and he wasn't sure if she had been there to being with.

Perhaps he had been in this bed since Thor had brought him to Midgard, he certainly felt too weak to have used his muscles lately. Lethargic enough to be counted among the dead and he did not smell like a bed of fresh flowers.

That almost sent another shiver of nausea threw him but someone had distracted him from ruminating on it. Thor, sitting there, not saying a word.

Loki blinked and then narrowed his eyes. "What have they done to me?" He didn't mean to sound accusatory but it remained unclear why he had been so ill.

"We haven't done anything," Cassie pulled aside the curtain around the bed, chart in her hand and pen in her mouth explaining her slightly slurred words. More than usual, for Loki could never place her accent.

"You had a seizure. I think it's because you're still recovering from… well you know more than we do about that…" Loki sensed the doctor wanted to ask, as she had been itching to since he'd arrived but blinked and her expression eclipsed itself with something different.

Mild concern or the wish to leave his company. He had not spent time with her enough to tell yet.

She still looked stressed; the tension in her eyes and the set of her pretty mouth told him as much. He did not want anyone caring for him, putting solutions into his body to be stressed and forgetful. He really had to mention to Rogers to take her away.

"You may go home Doctor. I am well." He waved her away.

Thor sighed. "Loki,"

Doctor Williams huffed but kept her pleasant expression. "In this room I have the authority and you can't send me away." Loki sensed she took an abstract pleasure if saying that but she drew the curtain again and went somewhere else.

Fact remained she was gone which was his desire. Now he could focus on getting Thor to leave too.

With the curtain drawn, Loki rubbed at his eyes to get rid of the blurriness. It seemed to only make it worse. "Loki?"

It was Thor sitting there, but that deep grinding voice belonged somewhere else far from Loki. It made him halt, hands before his face and unmoving. He could not move. Dared not.

Opening his eyes and blinking away the pain the artificial lights brought with their annoying buzz Loki gasped.

He had known deep in his chest, where his heart ceased beating, he had never been on Midgard. He was a fool to believe it, fall into _his_ trickery. This landscape he was faced with, reflected in his wide eyes and cast upon by starlight was nothing he wished to see.

He was alone, but for how long? Enough to make him shiver with the cold, leave him bruises from the sharp rocks he was leashed to like a kept animal, for the blood to turn his pale skin to crimson and so dark the cuts they would make wouldn't show.

And the Chitauri's cuts were deep and unforgiving, did not numb when overworked, only blistered and broke large enough for his torturers to drip poison into them and singe his muscle.

In the light of all this, his expecting this, Loki did not struggle to break free.

Escaping only made them angrier.

Then as his mind began to saturate with memories and the fear he would soon have new ones, the rocks became soft and warm underneath him, and looking down he was again fully clothed in sheets he did not recognize.

"What is this?" the landscape never changed, but there was movement to his right.

He began struggling upwards, as if what he touched was made of fire and he would turn to ash.

Something tangible but invisible was pinning him down.

"This is false too!" He whispered, as floor tiles came into view and Thor, whom Loki barely remembered being there with him in the first place, materialized as if by smoke.

Thor had bent down to look at Loki's face, where he had bit his lip so hard it newly bled.

"Loki?"

"No," Outraged that the Chitauri were dangling Thor in front of him, fearing his brother was truly there and did not know he was prisoner as well, Loki pushed away. He must get as far from him as he could.

**_No don't show them you care, they will hurt him_**. "Stay away!"

"No, Loki, stop this nonsense!"

It did not sound like Thor, this concern making his voice higher than normal. Loki did not trust it, but still backed away.

The door to the room was thrown open and Barton, Romanoff and Doctor Williams came in.

At once Agent Romanoff came up to the bedside looking Loki in the eyes. "Calm down or I will knock you out. Thor is trying to help. If you want out of here then cooperate of your own will or I'll make you." Demanding, corrosive and controlling, Loki knew well that could be the real Romanoff under the illusion, and his vision came back to clear contrast. Her bearing was right, and Loki dared not look to assess how real the others seemed to be lest he lose the little control he had regained. Bits and pieces of the walls and windows came back into view and he blinked away his tunnel vision.

Loki hardly realized he spoke, the words hanging numb in the air, sounding unkind and harsh, "Thor cannot stay. I will not put him in danger again," Loki kept his eyes on Romanoff, they were cold and calculating and impartial, and he craved that above the pitiful looks he'd receive if he looked at any other.

Romanoff cut a look to Thor, who stood dumbstruck on the other side of the bed and hands hanging at his sides.

Dead silence engulphed them and Loki had nothing to hold onto, no voices or sounds to hold him there, and he smiled. It truly was a dream, for they began vanishing again to be replaced by harsh rocky landscapes and cold starlight.

"You've helped me fight my battles. It is only fair, and well-deserved, I stay while you fight yours." Thor's hand on his eclipsed Loki's memories and he zeroed in on his brothers face, it was impassioned and Thor blinked, saying nothing more.

Loki shook his head a little, his eyes fluttering closed and he wondered simply if both realities were just a tortuous illusion the Chitauri had created.

Loki didn't believe Thor, after all he had done, would forgive him as such.

* * *

Clint relaxed as soon as Cassie had slipped in and given Loki a sedative through his central line. He had look at Thor for a brief minute and it was done, Loki was soundly knocked out on a cocktail of b12 and morphine.

He stopped shaking, his hands relaxed from the grip they'd had on the blankets, and his body relaxed allowing them to follow suit.

Clint couldn't help thinking that something was definitely going on with Loki he couldn't control. His crazy eyes had returned when only the day before Clint had a full conversation with the guy while guarding him. He'd brought Loki a sandwich, which he refused but Clint had expected it and ate it himself. While he had been working away on his favourite pickle and ham combo Loki had crept up to the glass and had taken a seat on the floor. He asked simple questions, where Clint was born, how he had superior archery skills, the usual. At first Clint thought it was a ploy, but it looked like Loki needed someone other than Sigyn and Thor to have a talk with.

He suspected Loki was sick and tired of his past and wanted to hear about someone other than himself. Deflection, if Clint remembered correctly. A lot of veterans did the same and it gave Clint a knot in his stomach.

Thor collapsed into a chair with a hand over his face, and all the noise coming from his was light breathing. Clint tapped Natasha on the shoulder and nodded to the hallway.

"I'll shout if anything else happens," Cassie grabbed a chart and noted something on it, going back to the desk on the right wall.

In the hallway, afternoon sunlight streamed through the end window. Clint dropped into a chair but Nat stayed standing, and he nudged her boot with his. "Nat I don't think we should tell Fury."

That had her eyes blazing and Clint could feel the burn in his soul. He ducked his head and stayed seated.

Natasha crouched in front of him, looking up. "Why?"

Was he just seeing things or did it look like Nat had been thinking the same? Her mouth was set, eyes assessing and posture normal. No signs she wanted to murder him for thinking of keeping vital information from Fury. Clint felt relatively safe answering her flat question. "Loki's a danger to himself; I don't think Fury cares about him enough to really care about what just happened."

"Do we know what just happened?" this seemed more a question she asked herself so Clint kept his trap shut.

"Mind control is not a pleasant thing." Clint muttered and Nat's face softened enough for him to notice. "That guy has serious issues."

"Fury isn't going to be one of them. You're right; he's only harm to himself." That was the end of the conversation, not because Clint knew how Natasha spoke but because she got up and left towards the elevator.

She didn't look back at him to see if he followed and the doors closed on her.

Someone had to watch Loki, as per Tony's orders, and Clint decided to volunteer for the afternoon. He got cozy in the padded chair and took out his hearing aids for a cat nap.

* * *

**A/N: The story picks up in plot next week and so does the action. Hope you enjoyed. G**


	10. In This Eleventh Hour

**A/N: Okay here's the plan, I will update either on Fridays or Saturdays. If I say definitively I'm afraid to disappoint you all so either one of those two days.**

**Disclaimer: Do not own Marvel, do any of you?**

* * *

_In This Eleventh Hour_

"Not all missions go bad." Natasha reminded Sigyn after a bit of turbulence. Clint eased the jet onto calmer winds and the whirring subsided, leaving a few beeps from the cockpit to let them know they'd stabilized.

Sigyn gave Natasha a level look. Natasha had a flash of Sif suddenly, a warrior who understood calculated risks, and on some extent so did Sigyn. No one would have chosen to befriend Loki and return after what he'd done without calculating the risks. Sigyn seemed rational, kind and a little uneasy about blindly jumping into things if it wasn't the right cause. Since this was for Loki Natasha didn't ruminate on her offer to help. In her bearing and the clenched fists, Natasha saw that she was truly courageous. Being frightened and still rushing in to help her friends.

"How did you know Agent Barton was trustworthy after he had tried to kill you?"

The metallic clicking of the engines and roaring of wind against the belly of the jet as they were bashed against the currents and air pockets distracted them for a moment. The lights flickered.

There was a storm over the Atlantic and Clint had decided to go above cloud cover.

Through the cockpit windows both women could see the dark flashing clouds beneath them.

Sigyn closed her eyes and took a breath Nat could hardly hear. Loki apparently opened up about what he had found out about the team after his dip into Clint's mind the year before.

Not surprising and not entirely good for any of them. She wasn't angry in a sense but displeased was more the route of Natasha's thoughts. Everyone knew Clint tried to take her in without a heartbeat so Natasha rolled her shoulders to ease her tension.

"Because he didn't. Kill me." Natasha rechecked the bag sitting on the seat beside her, the syringes and other medical supplies in the duffel Sigyn would carry once they'd disguised her.

"It was a harder choice not to pull the trigger."

"Would you have? Pulled the trigger." Sigyn avoided eye contact, looking at her folded hands on her lap.

"Yes. But you knew my answer."

Natasha was the one to look away once Sigyn caught her gaze with her own, like a hook embedding into her throat she couldn't respond. "It mirrors my own."

"_Okay ladies gossip time is over_," Clint's voice came over the comm channel. The landing went smoother than the flight, and before Clint opened the drop door he unbuckled and joined them in the loading bay.

Natasha hefted the duffel over her shoulder and secured it. She wouldn't ask if Sigyn was ready, or even if she was nervous. Both answers were obvious. The calm features and sharp intensity of Sigyn's face and eyes melted into a warmer shade, replacing sharp grey with soft blue and tan skin with a lighter blush. The strands of ebony hair tapered off into blonde with slight curls at the ends. She became shorter by two inches and the protective armour and Asgardian clothes hemmed themselves into black slacks and a flowered blouse.

The pattern of flowers matched what was printed on the disposable cups Cassie used on the medical floor.

* * *

"_All hail,"_ Stark's voice came through the comm in Clint's ear, the sharp pierce of static blurring his vision of the hallway he was occupying.

"_Don't sit on the job, Bird Boy_."

Tony knew he couldn't answer, as Clint should have been just sitting there waiting for Nat and 'Cassie' to finish and talking to himself would look suspicious. Like he was on a secret mission. Which he was.

Tony had a hard time keeping things on the down low sometimes. Clint grimaced. Natasha and Sigyn had been gone ten minutes, and with ten left Clint began getting tingles up his arms.

"_Turn your head to the door, stand up_." That tone was different so without question Clint did as Stark wanted. The glass window in the door to the medical ward was thin and long, going from floor to ceiling along the hinges. There was little foot traffic that late in the afternoon so Clint felt safe pacing past it and stopping a few seconds. Long enough to give Tony some recordings of what was going on. All Clint saw were Nat and 'Cassie' leaning over a bed of a perfectly normal looking guy.

It was obvious Tony was looking for something particular.

A monitor began going off, and Clint could hear it from the hall. Natasha always kept her cool so Clint looked at the fake Cassie for indication of how big of a problem there was. Her hands were working fast but that's all Clint could determine apart from her hair getting darker. Her trick was wearing thin, mirroring her calm.

Tony swore in his ear. "_I'm opening the door, get them out quick_," As promised, the click of the lock went green and Clint pulled, not bothering to close it. It happened so fast Clint didn't doubt Tony had been ready to unlock that door from the beginning. "_Their systems detected a break_,"

"Can't you get JARVIS to do something?" He grunted while taking direction from Natasha and holding the now seizing patient down onto the bed. The restraints had broken and so had the needle Sigyn tried taking his blood with.

"_You have ninety seconds before those three floors go on lockdown."_

Clint jumped on the bed to hold the guy down.

"His disguise works as a cage and once I had broken its seal he was able to try and break out himself. He does not know what is happening; a response to being attacked."

Clint looked and knew they were screwed; Sigyn had lost her own disguise. She was back in full beauty and battle armour.

"We need to go, now," He forcefully pulled one of the many I.V's out of patient X's arm and the small collector he hoped had enough of a blood sample. Jumping off he hadn't counted on Sigyn taking his place, hands flat against the hospital gown and emitting a subtle glow the colour of wheat fields. Natasha was muttering as she began unplugging the monitors, quieting the chaos of the security alarms blaring, other patients still sedated enough not to wake around them. Clint closed the curtain around the bed in hopes SHIELD agents would bypass the locked ward on their checks, buy them a few minutes.

"That is impossible," Sigyn retracted her touch and almost jumped off the bed, eyes in terror looking at the struggling patient. Blue frost began forming on his pale skin, lowering the air around them by a few degrees, crawling over his skin with designs it gave Clint a headache to focus on. Instead he looked at Natasha across the disaster, and she nodded.

"Sigyn, can you teleport? No use trying to hide the radiation signature now."

Clint only then realized all he could hear over comm was static. He took out the piece and pocketed it. Sigyn blinked her unfocused eyes. "I can try. Take my hands,"

The buildup and rush of pressure in Clint's head had him biting through his lip, every molecule of himself seemingly vibrating with an undefinable power as if he had swallowed the sun. At the last second he opened his eyes, he was now holding Natasha's hand, the third link on the chain.

Sigyn had gripped the Jotuns massive ankle, and in a tear he could hear and a scream he did not recognize sent him into a darkness so deep he did not see he was already in Stark's tower.

A blast erupted and Sigyn was blown into the room from thin air with the air vibrating with her disturbance.

Natasha sat across from him in what he realized was Starks penthouse, newly decorated with dust and cement particles, pieces of window glass scattered and still breaking off.

"That was a mistake. Not… possible,"

Her words echoed and were drowned by Starks security system activating a few seconds too late. Clint looked over, Sigyn falling unconscious, the cracked brick wall of the fireplace supporting her, blood dripping from her ears onto the floor. Whatever she had tried doing sucked all the colour from her face.

"That was not the plan." Nat's cool voice ended in a cough, and Clint grimaced upon standing.

"We need more realistic plans."

* * *

_Two Hours Before…_

The man slept at the end of the hall with only soft snores indicating so. He was slightly slumped but not enough to be comfortable and Sigyn was tempted to wake him, send him off to somewhere more appropriate to nap.

She woken Thor and Loki many times when they'd fallen asleep in the halls outside the others room after battle, worry softening the hard cold floors of the palace. She doubted it was worry allowing the Hawk to sleep in such a position, more acclimation over the years. She knew he was an archer, an assassin and agent for SHIELD. He must have slept in worse places.

She stepped by him and entered the open door of the medical room, where she found the two brothers sleeping as well.

The doctor was not present. Papers filled the desk, machines beeping steadily, assuredly. Curtains were drawn to block the evening sunset and even JARVIS, who welcomed her, kept the volume low as not to wake them.

"_Do you require anything, Miss Sigyn_?"

She rolled the chair over to Loki's bedside, opposite Thor. "How is he?"

"_Doctor Williams sedated him. No new physical injuries to report_."

The room smelled clean, almost unnaturally so. Sigyn settled back in the chair, and two eyes turned to look at her.

"Thor, you scared me." She scolded him, shrugging lower into the chair. She prided herself on having good posture- in public. In the privacy old friends allowed she shed all decorum and decided she was too tired to be ladylike. Thor didn't comment or mock as he usually would.

More pressing concerns and all that.

"You're hard to frighten."

Sigyn gazed at Loki for a few minutes, ignoring the pointed look Thor unabashedly pinned her with. "Not that hard it seems."

"He is fine."

"You say that to assure yourself, not me." Sigyn felt the edge of the white sheets, the grainy softness before speaking. "I am not so sure." She could not look at Thor and it escaped her why.

She was not ashamed to admit she had lost faith in Loki, in his ability to recover. For all the times he himself had boasted about being able to survive anything Thor could, Sigyn doubted either of them could have survived what Loki had been through.

Even the Thunder God. Therefore, she was beginning to suspect Thor was lying to himself that his brother would be fine. Thor would never understand, neither of them would.

She was unsure of Loki ability to get past whatever was plaguing his mind.

"Sigyn I know it is hard."

"You do not." She flinched at her own harsh tone. In a more gentle voice, "You do not know how hard this is." Sigyn was planning on telling Thor she was leaving soon, but he must have guessed.

His face falling darker and hands gripping the chair arms, Thor signed. "I hoped you would stay."

There was nothing left to say on the matter. Sigyn would not let herself be persuaded to stay, and looking back at Loki lying peacefully between them, not knowing their decision and lies, was almost enough.

Loki had been too worried about the Helicarrier mission he had lost sight of his own recovery, and allowed his mind to wander. "This is not goodbye, not like last time." She whispered, hand encircling one of Loki's, and the other finding Thor's on the bed.

She kept her eyes down. "Do not let this happen again." **_Do not let him think himself beneath you._**

She met Thor's eyes one last time and stood. "I am meeting Agent Romanoff in Stark's laboratory. That is _my_ job. Be sure to do _yours_." She put a hand on his shoulder and went back into the hall.

The Hawk was awake, placing something small in his ears. "Hey," His small wave was half-hearted and he stood, stretching.

"Agent Barton. Would you like to accompany me to the lab? I've forgotten where it is."

"Yeah… sure."

Sigyn waited until Barton had looked into the door, seeing Thor sitting there and Loki still asleep.

"Hey JARVIS?"

They began making their way down the hall and Sigyn allowed him first into the elevator.

"_Yes Agent Barton?"_

"Send Cassie back up here, I'm clocking off."

"_Understood_."

A few minutes of silence passed. She studied him, all strong shoulders and far away stare as the numbers changed above the door panels. Agent barton was either avoiding direct eye contact or something else occupied his mind. Sigyn cleared her throat before leaning over to whisper, "In Asgard, when one is on guard duty, one does not slumber the time away."

Barton turned to look at her with a grin.

"Loki isn't really a criminal, so it's not guard duty. It's a watch." He said it with the ease of one who didn't think about their words, they came freely. One who truly believed what they said.

Sigyn smiled. So Barton did not think of Loki was a criminal in need of guarding. That could be dangerous if Loki succumbed fully to his illusions and became a threat. Sigyn did not plan on staying long on Midgard even before she had begun to miss Alfheim and her life there. She needed someone other than Thor to fully comprehend what Loki was capable of. The heroes of Earth could handle Loki when he was outright maniacal, but he also knew how to be subtly dangerous. In part fun and part seriousness, Sigyn let Barton in on a secret. "Loki once decimated a small village because they did not find him as threatening as Thor. Your offence is much smaller, but Loki is also more unstable these days. Perhaps he is worth _guarding_,"

The elevator doors opened and Sigyn stepped out. Behind her she could almost sense the archer weighing his options carefully.

She put on a charming smile, "Barton? Were we not going somewhere together?" she gestured impatiently and began walking backwards, keeping on eye on him and one of the doors to Starks lab. Already she could hear conversation turning into argument.

His face regained colour and he raised his eyebrows. "Oh, you're good." She would have taken greater pleasure in his laugh if it weren't for the raised voices penetrating the glass doors.

Clint wiped his smirk away by opening the door for her and they walked into a battlefield.

On one side of the arena were Bruce, Natasha and Steve, the other was Stark himself, the tension separated by a lab table holding equipment and a laptop wired into another machine. All argument ceased once the collective realized Barton and Sigyn had joined them.

"On Asgard our war council is not this loud and we are regularly referred to as heathens." She crossed her arms, and her little joke was well received. The tension melted as Sigyn walked to stand between the two groups. Steve uncrossed his arms and took a stool.

"Stark thought it was a good idea to tell director Fury of our plan."

"Not all of it!"

Before they could begin to argue, Sigyn accustomed to the signs as if she were seeing her own frosty breath hit winter air, she held up her hands. "We have a small window of success here, we have already delayed." She refrained from saying why because the source of that delay was then tinkering with the tracker he was creating. "If that ship gets closer to land there is more chance of harm if it were to fail." It had been more than an hour but the Captain was still ready to go in his suit, mask lying on the table behind him.

"It actually happens more than you'd think." Barton interrupted, going through little bits of equipment and junk on another desk.

"It needs to be in range to disable their systems. I can fly in there but there's a chance they'll detect my suit." Stark mumbled.

Steve sighed, "Tony it's not your fault it's not ready. I'd rather take the time to do it right,"

"Yes because you'd _hate_ to wing it." Tony rolled his eyes and replaced the goggles on his head, firing up a small mechanical tool that gave off smoke and a burning smell.

Sigyn tried to ignore her stomach rolling. "Please, the time for argument is not when we depend on each other."

Without looking up Stark said, "I'll have this ready in half an hour."

That was Romanoff's queue to brief Sigyn on their plan. "Clint will drop us off on the deck, emergency landing for fuel signed off by Fury,"

"You can thank me for that." Stark adjusted a setting on the machine his computer was hooked into, the one powering the soldering tool.

Romanoff continued holding her patience. Sigyn guessed she must have been used to his interruptions. "You will disguise yourself as Doctor Williams, it's her clearance we need and surveillance might find it odd Clint and I are accessing the intensive care unit. Tony will loop the security feed so they won't see us taking samples. Clint will stand guard, you and I will go in, you'll do your part and then we leave. Twenty minutes at most. Any longer and surveillance might suspect something."

Silence followed Natasha's monotone delivery of their less than safe plan. She made it sound simple, but Sigyn knew any number of things could go wrong.

Steve pushed himself off the stool, arms crossed again. "The Helicarrier will be in range in twenty minutes," He checked his watch. "It will take you an hour to reach it with the Quinjet, it's positioned over the Atlantic ."

On Asgard, they were always ready to act. It was different here, Sigyn was itching to get it done when Stark had to requisition the emergency landing from Fury, Natasha had come up with a plan, and Stark hadn't finished the tracking device in the time he'd thought.

She and Thor would have already departed, and would have likely caused more trouble than necessary.

"What is the chance we will wake this Jotun?" The edge in her voice was partly due to her shattered expectations it was taking more than the hour Captain Rogers said.

That drew some displaced looks, mostly from Stark. Before any of them could discount her worry the doors opened and Thor stood there.

He did not look at Sigyn but Steve. "You have explained a coma, but I still do not understand why waking him would bode ill. He is sick and injured and does not belong on Midgard. What if we bring him here for your purposes? He would be well contained and less able to injure others. Then, we return him to Jotunheim, to his own people."

"If SHIELD found out-" Natasha gave him a restrained look.

"If they find out he is like Loki, what would they do?"

Sigyn kept her back to Thor but her frosty tone was well heard, "This is not our home, and this is not our decision." Sigyn blinked a few times and the room came back into focus, the blurs bleeding to her peripheral vision before vanishing. Thor still spoke, "…never decided. When Alfheim tried to assassinate Loki that was not your decision either but yet you still allowed yourself to risk-"

"I have borne my punishment for that. Enough, Thor."

Bruce cleared his throat. "I need to familiarize you with the equipment." And gestured for her to follow him into another room off the lab where a door was halfway shut. Through the frosted glass Sigyn saw what looked to be a desk.

"Of course, Doctor." She strode after him.

"I suggest you put whatever is going on between you two on the backburner, Point Break. I've finished the tracker." Tony held up a small vile, with something minuscule and metal shining at its bottom.

The door to the office snapped shut.


	11. More Bad News

A/N: Thank you to the Anon who let me know the chapter posted as only coding. I have no clue what went wrong but I hope this fixes it.

**It's been such a long time since the last update I'm so sorry. Life has been hectic. Now without further begging of forgiveness, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel or any characters thereof.**

* * *

_More Bad News_

Bruce sat on the floor, shining a concentrated light into Sigyn's pupils while carrying on a conversation with Stark. Sigyn cut off all conversation in the room by laughing, low at first. Her eyes had opened without Bruce holding her lids open and he retracted his hand and dropped the light on his lap.

Sigyn's eyes, once startled, before memories dulled their shine to something more reminiscent. Natasha kept her eyes on Sigyn, watching as the woman slowly slipped into laughter. A soft pealing noise like the tinkling of a champagne glass being toasted at a party.

Natasha traded glances with Cassie, who had been called by JARVIS as soon as the trio had blasted into Stark's penthouse. Sigyn's teleportation abilities were quite rusty if the tingling in Natasha's hands and forearms persisted. If felt like a vice was cutting off her circulation even though Cassie had given her the all clear.

Now Cassie was kneeling by Sigyn, who was the one to crack Stark's immaculate fireplace in their meteoric entry.

It was really only in use during the winter months.

Natasha concerned herself with deciding if Sigyns inappropriate response proved Loki-esque in nature. By the time Thor had barged his way out of the elevator Sigyn had calmed down and was quietly pensive. Tony was talking with Bruce on the radiation signature SHIELD had picked up on before the anomaly.

Anomaly didn't even cover it. There was no word, even in Russian Natasha could use to sum up what the hell that life experience was. Good thing it wasn't an experience one had while dying.

"Sigyn recognized it." **_The anomaly_**. It was a mere whisper but hers was the only statement being made. All questions died in the stale, dusty air.

SHIELD was classifying it as a lab accident. Clint did not look happy talking to whoever was on the other end of his phone. He also kept his back turned not wanting anyone to listen in.

Adrenaline subsided and confusion set in. Natasha focused on Thor and Sigyn with everyone else since no one decided to bring attention to what they were all thinking.

Sigyn had known what happened and her silence was worrying.

Thor was the first to direct a question at her. They were all used to supplying the answers after missions or catastrophes, collaborating as only time spent with each other could create. Thor was finally the first quick on the uptake to realize Sigyn was no part of that dynamic.

"What did you do?"

Natasha didn't think accusing the woman would get them anywhere, but who was she to place judgement on how they communicated?

Her and Clint executed people for a living and threw platonic punches when frusterated, they were not prime examples of healthy communication skills.

She took a seat beside Clint on the half of the leather couch that hadn't been obliterated. Nat gave one cursory glance at Stark to make sure the vein in his head wasn't throbbing. Satisfied he was keeping his calm, Natasha turned her attention to the Avenger who was in danger of turning in the rage monster they were all thankful was retaining a sombre expression.

Bruce and Thor were closest to Sigyn's concerned gaze and seemed her point of focus. Blood pooled in the corners of her mouth so she had to swallow, and one of her cheeks was swelling. Other than those, Natasha couldn't discern any other injuries.

Bruce had said something about a concussion earlier, but Sigyn spoke clearly and to the point.

"We've met him before, Thor. On one of our ill-advised journeys to Jotunheim."

"That could be hundreds of years of ill-advised trips we're speaking of. There have been many."

To Natasha it didn't look like Thor was proud of how many there were. Either the countless times he had thought of attacking his adopted brother's race or watching Loki kill them himself, Natasha did not look long enough to decide. The floor was more appealing due to its lack of emotion.

"I must speak with Thor alone."

Nat knew before Stark spoke that wouldn't fly. With any of them.

"No." He sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "You just destroyed my living room and you're using my equipment. I think I get to know what's going on."

"He is one that should be dead."

Thor clenched his fists. "Are you sure of this?!"

Sigyn blinked. A collective breath was taken at the rage in the thunder god's face. She did not back down, but instead used Bruce's arm to raise herself and stand? "If I lie may lightning strike me down."

Natasha did not take her eyes off the Asgardian. She knew Thor would not attack, not here. Sigyn was another beast Nat would rather not learn the strengths of.

An unspoken understanding went between them, for as soon as it roared its ugly head their anger dissipated into the dusty air. Sigyn bowed her head and the floor swallowed the bulk of her words, leaving them empty sounds void of feeling. "It was the same presence of the one Odin had executed for the attempt on your lives, one he had tried to blame on the lady Sif and I."

"Still not getting how we can help because I'll be damned if we're leaving this one up to Asgard if they've already fucked up." Clint's bluntness was never received well. This time he was on the same page as everyone else, however, which meant this was officially encroaching on Avenger territory and screw what SHIELD orders.

Only Sigyn reacted badly, almost annoyed he didn't grasp the danger this Jotun posed. Natasha was beginning to. Sigyn mentioned Sif, and if that honoured warrior had almost died at the hands of a Jotun, which didn't seem a huge feat until you were faced with one –Loki did flit through Natasha's mind even if it was unsolicited- it was a concern.

Not the trifling concern. "I'm more concerned with what was powerful enough to keep him in that state. The records go back before Thor was exiled to Earth."

Steve jumped on that. "Loki isn't Loki, what makes us think this guy's any different? What happened could have been in self- defense." **_There's his puppy-dog hopeful look, things must be serious to pull that one out, _**Nat grinned to herself but schooled her reaction to Steve's explanation and the answer it provoked.

Sigyn met Steve's eyes squarely. "Loki is still there." Anger would have been less alarming than her composure. Natasha stood, the movement reflexively attracting Sigyns eyes.

Tony spoke first, hands held up. "Okay, before a catfight begins –not that I wouldn't mind- there's been enough destruction of my property. Bruce buddy, can you go check her out, "Tony swept a hand at Sigyn and raised a brow when it looked as though Thor would object. "Go with Point Break, but I'm going to go check on the Jotun we already have in custody."

Nat was sure on any other day Thor would have bashed Stark's head in for that comment but Sigyn had put a hand on his arm.

Clint stumbled while getting up and Cassie was on that like cowboys were on Texas. Natasha took his phone and promised to find him when Fury rang back.

She and Steve were left standing there when the elevator doors closed, exhaustion kicking Natasha to reseat herself on the demolished couch.

Steve crossed his arms. "Do you think Loki meant to hurt anyone in the beginning?"

What an out of the blue question but Natasha had heard worse from the mouths of worse people than Steve. Not that Captain America question the acts of the clinically insane was out of order, it was the tone.

Steve was regretting something. "I believe he knew some would get hurt, just… not who. Steve what's going on in that block of ice you've got for a head?"

Her words were joke but not her reasons for asking. Steve rarely looked so troubled, especially regarding someone still in the serial killer category.

Clint's phone went off, and Steve departed with mumbled, "You'd better get that."

It went to voicemail. She didn't recognize the number.

* * *

Sigyn had to keep reminding herself, **_Loki's not there_**. His physical position was clear, still on the medical floor. It was his standing on the rest that had Sigyn pensive while the others spoke of their next move and what to do with the awakening Jotun.

In Asgard, children were told tales of battles where afterwards, the warriors who fought them changed. The words still stuck in Sigyn's mind that their eyes were vacant of their souls, which had travelled to Valhalla before their bodies expired. Limbs empty of the robust life they had lived. Void of what had made them great warriors. Simply not there, lost in the ether of past and present.

Sigyn ground her teeth while conversation carried on around her, raised voices and gestures she couldn't bring herself to understand. Her head finally hurt as much as her memories caused her chest to burn.

**_Loki is _****not_ there_**.

He was faded, the lustre of who he was being worn like a river eroding stone. The warriors in those tales had been washed away down the river, but not Loki. He had not come close in the years she'd known him, if anything; Loki had been the one wearing _them_ down.

"If it is the same man, we must bring him to Asgard for justice."

Sigyn did not say anything to Thor's logic. It was true and just, but what would Asgard _do_? They had already executed the criminal as far as they were concerned. "Sigyn it is your choice."

"It is not. Odin punished the attacker. There must have been a mistake. We should...return with him."

"A mistake?" Barton remained open mouthed.

Banner seemed to agree. "If it was a mistake…"

"You doubt it was? For all of the Allfather's flaws, he would not have let the would-be murderer of his sons live." Sigyn was ashamed for standing up for Odin for all the trouble he had caused and the hurt in Thor's eyes then. Sigyn blamed her head injury for wanting to think the best of Odin despite the evidence stacked against him on that count. His love for his sons then outweighed what had transpired more recently in Sigyn's mind.

Thor seemed want to argue on every point. "By his own ruling he condemned Loki to a worse fate than death."

Allowing Loki to rot in confinement was not a worse fate until Sigyn remembered what other punishments there must have been in consideration by Odin and the Council.

Still she tried to reign in his accusations. "Thor…"

"Odin is no fool." That was the problem. If the Allfather was a fool-king, then his actions could be dismissed as mistakes, misjudgements. Considering Odin was a calculating, intelligent ruler, Sigyn was beginning to doubt he had let the traitor walk after learning what she and Sif had in that cave.

"Again this might be obvious to everyone from alien planets, but what happened? Who is this guy?" Barton had pointed to one of the security shots JARVIS had pulled up of SHIELDS intensive care ward. It was a still frame of the man lying in a coma, radiation spikes all around with Barton, Romanoff and Sigyn all vying for a position around the bed as the man had struggled. His face was blurred and skin tinged blue.

"His name was… is…" Sigyn scrambled for the right words. Her recollection of that time was a mosaic of feeble glass. "Aric turned out to be a hired assassin from Jotunheim and of royal blood who in turn hired two men from Alfheim. It was a guise and evidently started many problems between Asgard and Alfheim."

Barton whistled. "Why did they want Thor and his brother dead?" He meant the Jotuns, surely, but in the middle of thinking up how to explain the myriad complicated history of Jotunheim it was Rogers who saved her the explanation.

"It's no different than the Tudors and Stuarts, Clint. Although… it is different I guess…"

Sigyn looked to Thor, **_Let's not mention Loki is of royal blood as well. _**Her glare seemed to get the message across, for Thor tarried in breaking up the meandering conversation about the history of England.

Eventually JARVIS chimed in. "_Doctor Williams, your presence is requested on the medical floor._"

* * *

"That's going to give you a headache, don't say I didn't warn you."

"If I believed you were terribly concerned with my welfare I might have gone back to bed."

"Well it wouldn't be a _terrible_ idea." Tony didn't let his eyes linger on the very obviously struggling God of Mischief who had decided, upon hearing the mission didn't go so peachy, to get out of bed and walk halfway down the hall.

Tony put the bad of sterilized sutures he had made especially for Captain America in mind- the damn grandpa kept somehow ripping the normal ones for normal people- on the hall table and stood in the middle, arms crossed. He may not like that Loki was freeloading in his home but he damn well wouldn't have him further his stay by injuring himself more.

"You must be so pleased with yourself; you almost got to the elevator." He sighed. The sweat coalescing on his forehead was a dead giveaway if the shaking hand didn't assure Tony he'd collapse at any moment.

Loki leant against the crutch he had half a good mind to grab. He was out of breath and so Tony waited the appropriate amount of time to let him retort, but nothing came.

Loki just kept looking at the floor, clenching his fist.

"Okay," Now Tony was worried he'd return to the mentally unstable aspect of his personality and _that_ was easier to handle when there was a bed and restraints.

"JARVIS," to say he was a little concerned was okay.

Before JARVIS responded came a growl, "Stark," Loki was fighting whatever drugs Cassie had attempted to sedate him with earlier.

The shock of hearing the crash a few floors above must have pulled Loki out of his delusions far enough to realize nothing should be crashing into the building or breaking glass.

**_Holy shit he's worried about her. Wait, why do I care?_**

"Look Die Hard, I won't stop you from trying to get upstairs, but I'm not going to help. I've got better things to do than waste- woah, _woah_," Tony took three steps towards Loki as soon as the god began struggling to stay upright and collided sideways into the wall. Tony knew it was serious when Loki didn't even react to being touched. The past few weeks he had shied away from all physical contact and it even took Thor a few hours to coerce Loki into being examined by Cassie.

Guided to the chair Loki finally looked him in the eyes with an unfocused glare but nothing else.

JARVIS saved him from standing awkwardly in the hall, "_Sir, Doctor Williams has been informed of Mr. Odinson's condition and is on her way."_

"Okay, that takes care of that."

Loki kept glaring at him.

"Okay I get it." **_When did I start indulging psychopaths?_** "How's Sigyn, JARVIS?"

"_Miss Sigyn is recovering well. She is currently speaking with Mr Odinson, Doctor Banner and Captain Rogers awaiting your own arrival, Sir."_

Loki's response was to blink.

Tony couldn't help but roll his eyes and swallow his frustration. "Glad you're so relieved."

* * *

It had been a few hours of sitting in the hall where Loki refused to move from, claiming that if he were to return to the bed mass murder was not far from his mind. Cassie allowed it, and Steve watched as she administered fluids with an IV pump while he sat there, a blanket around him.

He wouldn't make eye contact, and would only answer Thor who always spoke first.

Any progress they made was gone. Suddenly it was like looking at the Loki from the year prior and Steve felt vilified to stand there by the elevator looking casual but feeling anything but, muscles tense. He unclenched his fist, trying to relax once Cassie sidled up to him.

"Okay I get you don't like the guy but I'm positive he refuses the more comfortable bed because he can't stand. He's too weak. I doubt he'll throw a coup." Contrary to her words Cassie was fiddling with her pen in her coat pocket, eyes not staying on anything more than a few seconds and kept nervously returning to the very man she was trying to assure Steve about.

"How's Sigyn?"

"I have a feeling she's survived worse with less medical assistance. I'm guessing in some sort of cave."

Steve had nothing to say to that. He was a culprit of that himself from time to time.

His ear comm began buzzing and he touched a finger to it.

It was Natasha, who had promptly vanished after they recounted what had happened on the Helicarrier and explained why waiting for his and Clint's evacuation plan didn't pan out.

"_Stark says to put Loki in a wheelchair and bring him to the lab, something's up."_

* * *

**A/N: I won't give you an exact date for the next chapter but expect it within the next two weeks. I'm starting to catch up! Hope you enjoyed -G**


	12. Count The Stars

**A/N: Surprised I'm still alive? Sorry about that huge gap. It's extra long to make up for lack of updates!**

**Disclaimer: I only own Marvel in my dreams.**

* * *

_Count The Stars_

**_That presence. _**

It was warm the aura surrounding him, the flow of energy concrete as if he could reach out and take it for his own. The voice matured and sure bringing him to the surface of consciousness with every word felt almost calming.

It boiled his blood to the point their energies matched and he began to move. The sheets itched, the voice hesitated and shouted, and then it was gone.

Other voices filled in that void, the presence now beside him he found lacking.

"_Patient X is waking, bring the cart! Get Agent Furrow and the doctor, quick."_

"_Hold him down!"_

Deeper voices but never hers. "_Get Fury on the line. Stark's A.I. hacked our codes _again._"_

_"Did anyone see who was here?! Who gave them clearance?"_

He wanted her back, the woman with the mouthful of insults and lungful of bravery.

The woman he had trapped in the cave.

**_That presence. Bring her to me._**

He was blind but not without power, she had given him what he had needed, a reason for waking.

Where she was, _he_ would not be far.

"What's happening? What's this light?"

Their screams only angered him, for they were not the screams he sought to hear. The alarming bells trilling in every direction were disorienting and he screamed with them, against them and finally he was the only one left screaming.

* * *

Steve rolled Loki slowly over the lip of the elevator threshold, there he left him in the hall to join the hurried meeting Tony had called for. Just something being wrong was a far cry from the nervous, furrowed look Tony shot him once he joined them at a lab table.

Natasha and Clint were missing from the group, their voices lowly bickering over a radio signal linked to Tony's phone, the only thing sitting on the table.

Loki's silhouette could be seen through the glass, and it looked like he wasn't going anywhere fast.

Thor did not wait for an explanation. "I have not seen you look so strained, Stark. It's worrying."

"_Metal head _should_ be worried; this has gone to shit fast_."

"_Clint you're not helping_."

Steve put a hand up, "Start explaining, first of all, where are you guys?"

"Searching the North Atlantic for the fucking Helicarrier!"

"Someone shot it down?"

Distracted with pulling up a short clip of security video, Bruce filled in. Tony looked too pissed to speak, he wouldn't watch the video again apparently. Steve watched hid friend walk to the sideboard, pouring himself a quick drink.

"It got torn apart from the inside. We got this from SHIELD," Bruce hit play.

Sigyn even would not watch, and once the screams began she asked Bruce mute the sound.

The video feed was from a SHIELD helicopter that had been circling the carrier. An explosion started on the main landing deck, and it fell into pieces as many as people fell from its structure down into the air.

Steve didn't see parachutes.

"Nat and Clint were sent by Fury for the recovery. So far… they haven't found anyone. Including him," Bruce paused on the image of patient X running across the tarmac as the carrier spun down.

Sigyn hissed and slammed her foot into a stool, sending it toppling into another. "We should not have left him."

Thor tried reaching out, she shoved his hand with her own. "This man is dangerous, if he be a man at all." She added, not making eye contact until Bruce began playing the video again and it clearly showed a rogue jet flying in the opposite direction of the helicopter.

"They sent this file, encrypted, to Fury, and then they vanished too." The video blacked out and faded back to Tony's screen saver. The billionaire himself came back, reloaded with a glass of dark whiskey.

"We woke the volcano." His glare was for no one but the wall, but Steve felt it tight in his chest.

"We have no choice we have to find him."

"_Easier said, Cap. All evidence is sinking into the ocean. Nat sent a file-"_

A lurch was heard, screeching metal, white noise and radio silence. The phone beeped twice, blinking a red CONNECTION LOST with RECONNECT? in green underneath

No matter how many times Tony smashed reconnect block it kept beeping. That did not deter him, and Steve watched as he and Bruce began tracking where the signal was lost hoping for a location.

Sigyn swept into the hall, and they saw her figure kneel beside Loki.

Thor shook his head. "The situation is dire."

Steve's eyes tracked Tony and Bruce, both of them harried and quickly calibrating the computer to Tony's hone. JARVIS was on low reporting all transmissions to and from SHIELD headquarters.

"They'll find them." The thought Natasha and Clint were far from helpless didn't being much comfort. Focusing on what they could control, Steve went into the hall. Sigyn was still kneeling by the wheelchair and might as well have been talking to it.

Bruce came out not long after and shook his head. He had bags under his eyes and his hand shook when not on his hips. "We got a weak signal but lost it."

"Fury know?"

"Yeah,"

Something loud crashed in the lab, and only Sigyn turned to check Tony was alright. Steve rubbed his eyes. Bruce sighed, and Thor mimicked his brother with silence.

"Okay, everyone get some sleep. I'll stay with Tony for a few hours."

"Wake me and I'll take over." Bruce gave them all a brief smirk and took the stairs up to his room. Or the kitchen, Steve couldn't be sure.

Sigyn and Thor escorted Loki back to the elevator, and Steve took a calming breath before opening the glass doors.

Tony was sat on the couch against the wall, pone in hand, still trying to reconnect. Nothing was said as Steve sat beside him, and even though it wouldn't affect him, took the drink Tony offered.

* * *

_She was scared. There were a handful of moments Sigyn could remember being properly terrified for her own life. There were many more she'd been scared for the survival and well-being of others. It was an unfamiliar feeling creeping on her, and just when she recognized it, like a voice though the fog, she was out cold. _

_Waking up in a dark cave, chained to a rock, was not what she had expected. _

_This was not Valhalla. This was another nightmare, one seeped in reality and Sif's blood mingling with hers in the dirt. **"The assassins are from Alfheim**." Echoed in her mind as the last thing she heard, blearily familiar._

_"Sif?" Her voice was raspy, but she did not remember yelling it hoarse. The chill of the rock at her back was enough motivation to move forward as far as the chains would reach. Sigyn knew it was still daybreak, the slate gray lighting only meant the cave bent inwards before opening at its mouth, and they were in its belly._

_Most of what lay beneath their feet was dirt speckled with moss, roots of trees protruding in from the mouth of the cave a few feet above their heads, and Sigyn could see a pair of boots standing on the mounds of mulch by the caves entrance._

_"Sif?" The woman's head was using a rock as a pillow, her body facing towards the wall. Sigyn extended her leg, which held the wound responsible for soaking the floor in blood, to nudge Sif. _

_With a hushed start, Sif awoke and sat up, and when she could not raise her manacled hand to touch the bruise on her forehead, did she turn and see Sigyn through the dimness._

_"What happened?" Ever the warrior, Sif searched around for their weapons._

_"I believe I will be answering your question, my ladies." A voice began moving towards them._

_There was a sense of Déjà vu when Sif stood there and did not bow to the whip cruelly used on her without restraint. A memory of Thor returning with wounds so putrid that had been left without care on his journey home that he had spent weeks confined to the healing chambers._

_A tear slipped down Sigyn's cheek as another lash of the whip echoed in the cave. She did not cry at that memory, only of the fear she felt that Sif could not take much more, but she would try._

_"Enough?" Was spoken from Sigyn's right, where their captor held up a staying hand to one of his underlings perpetrating the punishment. He only looked tall because she was sitting on the ground propped up by a large boulder jutting out from the cave wall. He was about Sif's height with a stronger build, lean muscle and a deceptively kind and calm face. _

_He neither showed concern or excitement while Sif was beaten, only stood waiting for her to break._

_Sigyn knew she would not and closed her eyes as a brief reprieve from watching the blood run down her friend's back._

_Their captor only asked because Sif had lost her footing and almost fell under the weight of the large leather whip._

_"Ne…never. I will…" She took a deep lungful of air and stood straighter, daring to turn her face to him. Her eyes touched on Sigyn and they both nodded slightly._

**_No matter what we will not give into his demands._**

_Her hateful yes were only for him as she hissed, "I will stand here until I die or you cut me down."_

_"I would not underestimate your pride, Lady Sif." If they had been at a feast, a celebration or party in the palace he would sound a gentleman. Inside the damp cave overwhelmed by the coppery smell of their blood and sweat, his words lost their charm and only sounded calculated and cold._

_He turned to look at Sigyn. "I wonder whether your pride is as stubborn." Both of his lackies advanced._

_Sif protested by shouldering the one with the whip into the cave side and the crack of his skull preluded his death before he fell to ground and subsequently bled out. Her one rush of adrenaline halted as quickly as it had come and she fell on her knees right beside his body._

_"Sif…" Sigyn cried, knowing that carried repercussions that would most likely end in her death._

_He stopped his second underling from advancing. _

_His reserve was tense, hands flexing before resting at his side, lax. This reminded Sif of sunbathing snakes seemingly harmless until they strike. _

_Being sure Sif was watching by staying silent until she turned to look he gave his orders, "Grab her," _

_Sigyn screamed- _

"Sigyn!" Large hands enveloped each forearm to cease her lashing about, which had woken Thor long before her screams had. He had dozed off in the chair flush to the bed and her hand had hit him. He watched for a while, only heard murmurs and believed she was disturbed by dreams.

When she cried out, he knew them to be nightmares.

He had never thought Sigyn was prone to nightmares and before he could stop it she'd tangled herself in the sheets and made her hand bleed by hitting the bedside light.

Cradling her hand to her chest, Sigyn watched as Thor went into the adjacent bathroom to wet a cloth. They had stayed silent, communicating only by looks.

They had done so since they were children, coming to a mutual understanding that words only filled the pain and did not extinguish it.

The damp cloth soothed the hot fear that had bubbled up within her. Every breath expelled her panic and her heart calmed. Nothing short of rest would help and so silently they sat in the muted light cast by buildings rising over the horizon outside the polished windows. Every room in the tower had a spectacular view, but theirs offered the sight of the water not far off.

"There are no stars."

Thor knew well enough this was not said to initiate conversation. Sigyn was merely distracting herself from the nightmares lingering effects. Her hands shook while folding the cloth, seemingly not caring it was wetting the borrowed white and blue pinstriped sleeping pants Pepper had been generous to lend. That's how Sigyn was, ignoring all else for the problem at hand. Thor didn't know if he was more pleased she still did so or that he remembered the trait with fondness.

Sweat still coalesced on her brow. "Do you miss…?"

His concern swelled, suddenly pulled out of the safe pool of knowing what she would have done next in their youth. Sigyn was not one to ruminate at length.

She did not look at him. Another hit to his concern. Sigyn did not shy away from anything.

"For the first time I will ask what troubles you." It was a warning to prepare her and not catch Sigyn off guard. They most times shared what ailed their bodies, rarely their minds. That had always been Loki's domain in their companionship, nowadays that was not a wise course given his situation which both were aware of.

It was what kept them awake just then like a hammer striking the backs of their skulls.

"For the first time I may answer truthfully." Her eyes were dark, unable to reflect such weak moonlight escaping the cloud cover outside.

"It was never said what Aric wanted. If we assume the Jotun-"

"It was. He wanted the princes dead."

Sigyn only ever interrupted someone while disputing. The princes- past tense as she knew Thor and Loki no longer thought themselves princes of Asgard. If she wished to play word games, he grew up with Loki where mind games were a common annoyance and was up to the challenge. "It was not said with what means." He amended.

Sigyn stared out the window as if diverted by something, a cloud sliding over the moon or a sound. "_'We betray the ones we love in shadows for it is too painful by light_.'" Quoted from one of Loki's many volumes, Thor was positive that's where the well-known verse came from but not so sure Sigyn knew she'd said it out loud.

Against his very nature did he bite his tongue. He could see the strain in lines around her eyes and if he hadn't known better Thor would have guessed she enjoyed this as Loki did.

She was protecting something still; Thor could see her shame in whatever deed Aric had asked of her and Sif still lingering after decades.

"Loki will never admit it but he worries." Thor could not guess why she had been absent or where she had gone after bringing Loki back to the medical floor. He knew about Barton and Romanoff even in his altered state, Loki was still observant.

"That's a first."

"Don't make him suffer your absence even if you've lost your faith in him." She had clearly touched a nerve and could have apologised if she were not plagued by exhaustion, and Thor's guilt only grew the further he got from the room.

"And what of our suffering?"

Thor had no answer to a question he himself asked at Odin's mercy, before Loki's sentence was final. No answer seemed to fit the question and so it remained.

* * *

Morning brought rain, a torrential downpour according to the news JARVIS had turned on as soon as Sigyn got tired of silence and ventured out to the kitchen floor. Many times Sigyn was present in the kitchen natural light had been enough but not that morning, JARVIS turned on some lamps and low light to see by whether out of practice for the others or sensing the growing headache brought upon by not sleeping through the night.

Sigyn sat with a cup of filled with the coffee pepper had made earlier that morning kept warm in the pot. The couch was hard but comfortable and the television provided a glare off the windows so that seeing this downpour of rain was difficult.

Such as it was Sigyn was fine with not viewing what Midgardians thought was terrible weather. Rain was welcome to her for the time it was there. Their way of life only made such weather difficult.

The man announcing the weather stopped for the morning news broadcast just as Steve Rogers came down the stairs from the penthouse. JARVIS automatically lowered the television volume.

Steve saw her and nodded wearily. Sigyn knew that reaction was not from her presence so she got off the couch and followed Captain Rogers to the island counter where mugs and a plate of muffins sat out courtesy of Pepper.

Steve said something about muffins being a Sunday tradition when it was remembered.

"How are the repairs?"

There was brick dust on Steve's shirt and he had come from the penthouse no doubt helping to remodel, once again, its interior. "I left him in the lab with Bruce, decided to start cleaning upstairs."

He didn't sound concerned about the state Stark was in so she nodded.

"Speaking of things being fixed…" It looked he was ready to give a lecture, an expression Sigyn remembered Odin using before beginning his grand speeches, so she cut Steve off.

"Loki is recovering." She adjusted pepper's borrowed bath robe over her shoulders.

"Well recovery goes slow when you refuse treatment…" Steve blinked dust from his eyes and offered her some cereal, when she declined he poured a bowl for himself, "Was Loki a bad patient when he was a kid?"

That was one reason why he was stubborn to accept aid and until then Sigyn didn't think anyone would dig deeper than the obvious- torture leaving its own scars on him he'd rather not show off.

Unlike other instances this time Sigyn would answer. Steve asked out of genuine curiosity not politeness. Cassie only asked histories for her course of treating Loki and the others to gauge how oft he would attempt escape or the level of hostility to expect.

Steve was just curious and his face was openly friendly. He crunched on his cereal patiently, taking a few sips of coffee.

"He was a prince; they are generally bad at taking orders where they are used to giving them." She tightened the robe around herself, crossing her arms and spinning on the stool to face Steve. "He prefers not to be bed ridden for that leaves his mind to wander. It's a flaw and he knows it but exploits his bad moods when ill anyway."

Steve stopped the spoon, laden with dark wrinkled flakes of what Sigyn could only guess the ingredients of. "Must have been terrible for you." His straight face was perfect except for the crinkle at one corner of his mouth as he continued eating.

"Unlike Thor I recognize sarcasm." Sigyn tested her own coffee, found it bitter and put the mug between them on the counter. "…the Loki you all know was a product of torture and… well he used to be kind. Usually."

"Thor keeps a tight lid on their past." It was a good point, how were they to know of Loki any other way than destructive with Thor sore on the subject?

Sigyn hurt equally when thinking about the past, but owed it to Loki to explain himself when he obviously would not. "It is hard for him to talk about the past because he cannot rewind time."

Sigyn sensed some of Steve's own past was influencing his acceptability towards Loki, however recent it was. "I had a close friend, would do anything for each other, and I failed to protect him. I know how it feels."

**_This friend must be long gone_**. She had seen her own grief reflected in mirrors often enough to see it burned in him. "Do you know how it feels to know Loki once risked his life to search for a guardsman's family during a siege of a nearby town, only to now see him so enraged and lost he struck out against the very people he would have died to protect?"

Sigyn said this calmly, not allowing her voice to rise with tension she felt so tightly in her chest. Steve listened and nodded, and finally said, "No."

"I understand why you are all so stubborn to take his word now, when he has proved he is capable of intricate lies." Sigyn lessened her grip on the coffee mug, knuckles flushing again after gripping too tight. "Captain Rogers, even if he is now beyond our help, we should at least try. He deserves that much."

She could not bring herself to see him when all of these memories would no sooner recede than her own breath. The guilt must have shown on her face because Steve was not taken aback nor disputed her words. He only sincerely agreed. "Loki is not the same guy who attacked us last year. Maybe it's because his hair isn't so wild," That provoked a smile from her, "but between you and Thor, we have no choice but to believe you when you say something happened to him. Cassie even thinks so," It was an afterthought almost, but was said so carefully Sigyn caught a glimpse of something.

"You are close to Lady Cassandra?" The territory of gossip was never Sigyns's strong suit, nor her favourite and only did she pry because she was tired of everyone peeking into Loki and Thor's life.

"She's seen the team through some close calls."

"Yes, but none of them seem to regard her so highly. You are speaking to a woman who grew up with the Silvertongue, not much escapes my notice."

"How many times have you caught him in a lie?"

"You're changing the subject." She had lost her skill in twisting conversations around and was fast losing this one. Steve shrugged and sighed, brushing off any talk of the young doctor.

"I do that a lot. Come on, how many times?"

Her brow quirked. "Too many, Captain Rogers."

* * *

The inclement weather was not far from a rainstorm on Asgard and lost its intrigue after an hour. Sigyn made a plate of food for Loki, hoping to find him still asleep in his bed.

Her luck was never on course, for Loki was awake and struggling to sit up. It seemed he did not sleep and so Sigyn knocked on the door to hopefully start the conversation on his good side. Better for him to allow her in rather than imposing.

He waved her in, and Sigyn set the plate on the table while aware of the god's snarl at it. He did not care for Midgardian food, even the more simplistic items.

Now he was scowling at a plate of cheese, bread and something Sigyn knew to be processed ham she'd found in a plastic container. Everything had tasted delicious when she tried a few bites, thus attempting to persuade him by picking up a slice of cheese and eating while she spoke.

"Stark does keep a good pantry. Edible, but far from fresh market."

Loki didn't react, playing deaf as he usually did when something was on his mind that idle conversation proved too strenuous. Sigyn assumed it was because talking of home gave him nausea, for that was the face he presented her with now.

Upon further observation, it was passive annoyance in the twitch of his mouth and squeeze of his curled fist.

Sigyn adjusted her dress and sat comfortably in the soft cushioned armchair. If they were to fight, let her body at least rest while her mind fought with his. "Out with it, why are you angry with us this time? Or are you still worried about those Agents?"

Her words were cut off by the whoosh of air flying past her head created by a hurled cup. It had been sitting on the coffee table near the couch, where Loki now stood.

He had thrown it to silence her. It had that effect and more for Sigyn stood immediately wanting an explanation for his childish behaviour.

"You… you were happy with another life."

Sigyn opened her mouth but he filled it with his own words. "Don't dare lie. You've always desired a simple life away from Asgard. You can have it, so why linger here?" It was clear he was deranged, his tone was off and so were his words.

**_Excuses, all of them._** Surely they must be for the feeling in her chest did not sit right, the way he avoided eye contact fell short of his commanding tone. Once again words were his protection and they bit like the coldest wind.

"So again you wish me away. Well this time you are no prince and I am not your inferior, you do not have the power-"

"Where I lack power so do you, even being a lowly prince only my father can make final decision in this, so if convincing him-"

Sigyn rushed forward before he would have fallen from his bed, a hand on his bony chest trying to push him back. Before feeling the rampart of air circling them Sigyn gasped at the red tinged iris of Loki's left eye.

She put a hand on his neck and pulled away just as fast at the icy sensation.

"Get away!"

The flux of energy hit fast, bumping her against the glass wall at her back. It was enough to lose her footing, and no more. That was not a mistake; it was a controlled demonstration of power on Loki's part. She could feel his hesitation but not see it in his eyes as he finally looked at her from across the room. The breakfast plate rolled and stopped when it hit the foot of the bed, food trailing in its wake.

He was gaining strength except where Loki wanted it. His mind was still in turmoil if he had decided to use physical power to persuade her. The unbalance was clear in shaking shoulders and forgetting where he was. His face when he spoke of Odin was wrong, there was trust and belief.

Sigyn thought it better to have him believe in his truth, even if it was a lie.

"How is it you're always right?" Her sharp smile made the words bitter. "I came here in duty of friendship and will leave out of that same duty."

"Once you leave the Allfather will not permit your return. Are you sure you're making the right decision?" Acidic words hardened by his own prejudice, Loki had spit them like a venmous snake.

**_He believes we are on Asgard fifty years ago_**.

"I did." Her unsure words weren't fruition of this night, more of her phantom memories of leaving in a similar way half a century ago.

Her words did nothing but echo and she did not look back to see if he had called her name or if it was hopeful imagination.

She only regretted allowing Loki believe her lies. The truth would only bring more pain and she had caused enough.

Sigyn would have retreated to the roof and called for Heimdall if she hadn't reigned in her pride and went in search of Thor.

Sigyn had noticed a feeling, _an anomaly_, in the room she couldn't quite shake.

* * *

**A/N: Next chapter will all be Loki's POV. Excited? Hope you enjoyed! -G**

**Also, an update will be posed for Culprits of Action this weekend if you're interested.**


	13. Vision of Reality

**A/N: I DID NOT FORGET. This story has been on a semi hold due to multiple reasons. Not anymore. Chapter updates will be more consistent. I will post the date for the next chapter at the end of each one.**

**Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I may have left this a long time, but I still do not own Marvel or it's characters.**

* * *

_Vision of Reality_

He forgets how old he is. It's happened before, and each time the want to remember wanes a little more. He did not need his age when dealing with the Chitauri, or the Allfather, or in prison. There was never a need to remember.

Thus he forgot how old _Thor_ was, too.

This made Loki pause on the edge of the white sheeted bed, bare feet on the cold floor.

It was not a large problem, certainly not amidst other pressing issues they had been saddled with. Age did not matter.

The door opened at the end of the room, the thunder god himself walked in, eyeing Loki and taking the nearest stool. The lights were half turned off, very, curtains kept dull city light at bay. Loki watched Thor move closer, slowly, and finally looked up.

"What is my age?"

He only asks out of curiosity, of course. Not because he needed to know. Just curious. It would also help knowing Thor's age if he ever cared to know in the future. Unlikely, because Loki _did not care_.

Thor raised a brow and considered it. "Two thousand and eleven?" The consideration rings a bell in Loki's mind, soft and too far away to correctly place it in his already displaced timeline of memories. "You were between realms for a long time" Thor doesn't wait for Loki to gain his bearings, and Loki suspects his face must look confused. "I am sure it's normal to feel… forgetful about such things." Thor waved a hand distractedly, focusing on what the city was doing outside.

Loki wondered if the city lights were more troublesome than he had been lately. He knew with absolute surety there wasn't much of him left, but was unclear how he had diminished so rapidly. Asking Thor wouldn't be useful. He knew _less_. Trusting his brother with such delicate information as his state of mental decay was not in Loki's best interest.

Loki did not understand why he was suspicious. Or why Thor still didn't prattle on about the day's events. Loki bolstered himself and opened his mouth to ask, but failed. His failure culminated in a noise at the back of his throat.

Thor came back and sat, Loki noticed a little closer than last time. He would allow it for now. "Lady Cassandra says you're doing better."

Loki didn't respond, **_facts don't need replies_**_._ Loki shook the feeling that he'd heard that from someone before. Facts didn't need replies. He stayed silent. Thor began steadily talking. Loki did not mind hearing about the day. Barton and Romanoff were still missing. It had been two days. Loki had been asleep for most of that time, delirious.

Pepper dragged Tony away from his lab long enough to sleep and eat, and now the man was back at work with Bruce not far behind. It was the first time Loki received entertainment from the security screens Cassandra set up with his comfort in mind. "Seeing you aren't alone," were her words. Bruce took more breaks than Tony, according to Thor. Steve spent a lot of time in the gym, he was there with headphones punching out frustration.

No mention of Sigyn, no sight of her on the two screens all evening. Loki did not pine for information, but the nagging consideration of asking for it got the better of him the seventh time Thor asked if he was hungry yet.

"Sigyn?"

"Asgard."

Loki tasted the lie in the air between them, floating crystalline specks on the cold conditioned air venting from the ceiling. It was hurled like a rock and may as well have pitched Loki off a cliff for its sudden impact. Perhaps plunging off a cliff was less frightening. He had certainly done _that_ before, again the timeline wasn't clear on _when_.

"What?" He bit the word, still imagining himself plummeting from a cliff in the way that blue bird the coyote chased in the cartoon Barton had watched.

Thor glanced at Loki for longer than he had the entire night. "Heimdall called for her."

"And you let… let her go." His voice faltered, regaining though on the many times he had let her leave. He could blame Thor; he did, but with his mouth closed tightly.

Loki forgets to breath and pulls in air after black dots encircle his vision and neon imprints flash when he blinks. If only he could forget why his bones hurt, why his heart sped at the thought of leaving the room without company. The clock on the wall ticked away, and Thor's eyelids began falling.

Was he tired? Or just bored? He got bored as easily as Loki. At least that detail wasn't lost with the others. Loki had the edge of an idea and it only came together once he was speaking. "Jane Foster is in Mexico still? It would do you well to visit. You look like Hel, brother, and mother and father see it as well."

Loki did recall enough of the previous days to know they thought him delusional. He was forgetting things, where he was and when. This time it was to his advantage, and he would use that to get rid of his brother.

One less spectator to his increasing madness. Rotting in a cell on Asgard was more appealing than being… well, Loki loved being on display but these were not his terms.

They were Odin's, that he be exiled here. Kept like a prisoner of a war that only raged in his mind.

Thor of course was rightly on edge once Loki mentioned Odin and Frigga. "Loki…"

Sour and halting, Loki's tone reflected a neutral face. "Go and let me sleep…brother."

* * *

_He suffered less with her eyes upon him, sucking away the pain within their deep irises, locking them with their lighter heart, their optimism. _

_Her smile could stop wars. _

**Stop the screaming. **

_Warm soil soaking in cooling blood of enemies and allies to water the grass. He was stepping over friends like weeds, pale faces marked with lasting pain, scarred with blood on bone. A sword thrust into breast as if to say to death, send me. _

_Loki kept running towards her, eyes never leaving her mouth or hands as they futilely waved. She was not dressed for battle- the army had just arrived for the slaughter and hadn't given notice of the skirmish. The treelines hid their advance until it was too late to sound warning bells._

_The town had been overtaken once the sun dipped and the moon was yet to rise. It was short, the army moved on to leave the dead and wounded untended._

_She was in the middle of the road among the fallen guards and townspeople protecting their burning castle. Blood collected in her mouth and droplets of it clung to her clothes, the simple wool shawl the colour of precious gems and hair as dark as the soil that served as her bed splayed out as if it too were slain._

_Those deep eyes that had often served as a balm were now stuck eternally looking up but not seeing. Her exposed flesh was cold, right hand clutching tufts of grass and the other caught on the hem of a child's dress. _

_The Allfathers army marched up behind Loki on the road, halting on the rod. Thrum of boots stilled in the air left no sound to latch onto except the memory of her voice._

_ "__Sigyn?"_

_The name did not wake her, skin frosted in the light of a still burning town._

_Loki screamed with the flames as if he, too, had been scorched by the enemy_

"No," The plea made his skin itch. A numbness spread throughout his body, weighted down by tangled sheets he did not dare struggle out of. Thor slept in the chair. With every tremor of his hands Loki feared waking someone. His was not the state you wish to find anyone, friend or foe. Words could not satisfy his fear, raging against itself as Loki tried calming his mind. It was a dream; surely Sigyn had not died that day.

Loki remembered blasting her against the wall of his lower cell. **_Not real_****.**

Taking stock of his limbs, stretching silently and counting to ten, he sat up. Only dizziness stalled his attempts acting on an urgent feeling something was very wrong.

**_Do not wake Thor. Do not alert them. Escape_**.

Loki had never once begged since his imprisonment, but now bargained with himself. He wasn't as mad as they believed. He had his logic, his sharp tongue. The Chitauri had not cut that off quick.

The taste of his lies brought about more tremors.

If he could not lie to himself, how would he have others believe this treachery?

Loki had grown into fear and deceits, permitting it mask his plans from the Chitauri on multiple occasions. Now he forbade that twisted fantasy his mind had dreamt would become reality. Sigyn would survive that monster.

A moment passed when Loki could not remember if this monster was him or the beast Agents Barton and Romanoff had been lost looking for. As the days in the dungeons on Asgard came trickling back like a poisoned stream, he sat diligently waiting for the imagined pain to render him unconscious. Struggling with his every breath rattling in his chest, Loki slipped back into memories of his waking nightmare.

**_They continue to invade my mind._**

* * *

She's never asleep long enough to dream. So when the man across the street defies all laws of physics by melting into the sidewalk and sirens sound like small bells and children's laughter, Natasha knows something is wrong.

She never sleeps long enough to dream. Conclusion; **_I'm not sleeping._**

A drop of something wet and warm falls on her cheek, dampness seeps into her back and legs, through her suit. Her head aches awfully and she blinks up at bright green canopy. Through leaves and branches and holes where birds sing there's blue sky. The moss is soft when her fingers flex around it, pushing herself up.

That's as far as she moves. It's unfamiliar forest, a jungle. Unzipping her suit only alleviates the crushing heat while the sweat still collects at the nape of her neck and runs down her back. Pushing her curls out of her eyes she surveys the glen she'd dropped into. Her parachute hanging out of the nearest tree, morbidly reminding her of the third Jurassic Park movie Clint made her watch recently.

"Clint," Her words were a soft moan, throat parched and head still spinning.

Birds didn't seem like a threat, their singing covering up the crack of smoking flames licking the horizon. She could see black swirling smoke in thin pillars reaching towards the sky at a break in the treeline.

Considering the Quinjet had fallen out of the sky and her with it, she'd only been launched a few hundred feet. With broken branches lying around her, the dense trees must have slowed her descent. Saved her from certain death.

It meant Clint could be a few hundred feet in the other direction. "Clint!" Raspy but loud her voice was good to scare a few birds above her, but nothing more.

The slow whine of the engine still permeated the forest, and once she was able to get herself standing, worked her way over roots and boulders towards it.

They had managed to navigate the jet into a valley, but she couldn't remember how, or what shot them from the sky. They had been over water… but in every direction from the raised vantage point were dry.

For she'd landed above the jet, on a few joined cliffs, and leagues away in every direction laid land with trees and predatory animals.

"Clint!"

Assuming her echo would go unanswered, she'd begun to scale down the hill among lush short grass and into taller, golden reeds near where most of the jet broke apart. Halfway down the hillside an echo reached back on the tails of her grunts of effort.

"_Tasha_!"

Clusters of colourful birds flew up on the other side of the smoking ruin, and Natasha began running for it. Again she heard him call out, and she answered until her throat clenched and she was forced to breathe again.

He was propped against a rock and from the small trail of blood on leaves and grass he had pulled himself from up below the valley where a wide river ran. She cleared most of the brush away, realizing that the overhang of strong reeds and branches growing into the riverbed had saved Clint from falling into the rushing waters and being washed downstream who knows how far.

"What happened?" She did not mention his injuries, which seemed various on closer inspection, or that he had a seldom used knife already out and bloodied, but the smoking mess behind them.

"Navigation failed, and something big smashed into us."

Natasha assumed the hole ripped into the side of the jet was from impact, but perhaps it wasn't. They could think about that if there was a later.

Clint sheathed the knife in Natasha's belt as she helped his sit straighter.

"Oh, no band aid in the world big enough for that." Natasha peeled her eyes away from his back, where she could see flesh hacked in small splinters away from his skin, like cheese after being grated. Swallowing hard Natasha rested him against the boulder again, putting what was left of her suit behind him. Outfitted in pants and a tank she climbed back to the wreckage to find radio pieces.

Stark was good adding to her skill set at least. Natasha knew the basics of making a long range SAT phone and would hopefully get to thanks Tony for those lessons.

Gathering the wires and casing material she needed, Natasha also brought over some pieces of smoking jet and leaves to make a fire where Clint sat. It was hot then, but ranging from where the sun set when she began and where it was headed, night wasn't far.

Climbing down to the river she filled a soft plastic bottle up and began boiling it hanging over the fire on copper wire held by two rocks at either end.

Clint woke up just as she was tweaking the home made radio. "Tasha,"

Her head snapped up, "SHIELD might be looking, Stark definitely will be. Judging from the temperature this time of year and the water level, we're in West Africa… we need to be extracted."

Clint shuffled himself over and handed her the first aid kit. "Tony teach you to sew?"

* * *

**A/N: Hope that was long enough to satiate you all. Next chapter update will be January 2nd 2015!**


	14. Fields of Shadow

**A/N: HAPPY NEW YEAR! Have an update.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel, or the characters or worlds. I just tweak it for my own pleasure.**

* * *

_Fields of Shadow_

Someone was singing. Soft and a little off key. Natasha was not immediately worried, many women and kids in the village, and even some men sang on their way to and from the river. With baskets bound to their bodies for water or sand to weight down pots and jars. Natasha waited patiently for them to pass for the second time that night.

The sound only got closer, the song masking any footsteps.

She had heard performers before, musicians and melodic singers at festivals. All of them equally remarkable, all of them the same.

This was not a good voice. Natasha could tell even when they spoke it might be cracked and warbled.

She did not wake Clint. She stood still in the circle of firelight, stepped out under the blanket of stars and turned to where the intruder was walking. They were circling the camp.

It was singing to fill the air, nothing more. To distract, not entertain. It was rustic, and they would pause as if forgetting the words.

In one of these pauses, Natasha cleared her throat and told the stranger, in French, that they were welcome to share the warm fire. Natasha was hoping it was only a villager curious about the still smoking jet and two Americans wrecked by the river who hadn't gone to the village for aid.

The singing stopped, somehow making Natasha more alert. She could tell they were just in the shadow of forest, staring right at her. The hairs on the back of her neck began to prickle.

It took a few lingering seconds to place the words she'd heard after they spoke. Clearly it was a man, not speaking native French of the area. Something older.

Natasha kicked Clint, still looking to where the voice spoke.

**_Norse_****.** She recognized some words from when Thor and Sigyn had fought weeks before.

**_It's not Thor._**

Clint huffed and grunted, "Nat?"

"We have company."

In plain English and confident tone, "You certainly do, Agent Romanoff."

* * *

_Long ago..._

_It was what was left behind that Loki yearned to go back for. If he could see, he certainly would march straight back and grab his forgotten cloak. Damn his sight and damn this girl who kept pausing and going forever along the trail. He could only guess it was a steep trail, they're routed every few steps to go around something. _

_She hushed him when he made noise in the back of his throat out of annoyance._

_Sigyn had decided she would take them on the better path. This was not a path. Imagining villagers trying to get up the escarpment had Loki wincing in pain from his lips straining the golden thread._

_Finally after the third "Sorry," for leading them the wrong way he tugged his hand free of her grip, halted. Almost falling into what felt like a tree branch when he luckily caught himself on an edge._

_Sigyn squeaked. That was new. _

_He raised an eyebrow, hoping it looked as patronizing as he felt. Girls did not squeak like common animals. At least not in Asgard. _

_ "__Don't, uh, move?"_

**You're asking me? **

_Posing it as a question almost made him smile again, but he stopped himself. Her tone was off. Instinct kicked in and Loki felt around where he had dropped. Clearly from where she stood he hadn't gone far. Yet… as his fingers felt the rough ground, tree bark, he paused. _

**How long must I wait for an explanation?**

_His grunt must have kicked her metaphorically in the head for how fast she caught on he was waiting for her to speak. Her whispered burst had him immediately concerned. "Uh, don't move but stand up."_

**Yes that's clear**_. How Loki wished he could bite her head off with those words but sighed instead and did what she asked._

_Something swayed beneath him. He was moving with his feet planted firmly to the ground. _**Where has she taken us?**

_ "__Help him."_

_Suddenly he felt something wrap around his feet, tight and coarse. It slithered. Moving threw him off balance and he had trouble standing upright again, something thick and knarred pushed at his back and whatever had grabbed his feet vanished._

_Airborne for only a moment, suddenly he smelled fire smoke and river water. Sigyn had caught him and just as suddenly let go to let the warm flowered air fill the gap between them._

_Loki coughed and tuned to where he thought she was. _

_ "__Sorry. I thought you knew… this is the path I told you we would take. The one between Alfheim and Asgard."_

**Alder Fields.**

_Loki had only read about this branch of Yggdrasil. A vast expanse of trees beneath them pitching their branches above, arches woven together with the candescence of starlight as bright as day seen through their curves. Beneath them the grand trunks spread out like folds in a blanket, woven to tightly they swayed as one when passers walked. The path was alive, branches moving like snakes beneath their feet, creating staircases and straight paths, fields of moss soft as warm sand. _

_Sigyn had taken them through the Alder Fields. _

_Sigyn recited what must have been part of a song on Alfheim. "'Fields bright with starlight, all around black sound catch traveler's sight. Green branch and brown leaf weaving endlessly through night. Walk slow as paths go always take your right.'" _

_Loki had been pushed from a hole in the field where a branch had once made a path, launched by the tree branches growing beneath. No one knew what was beneath the swaying trunks, only that the void was surely beyond._

_Sigyn's verse echoed around them. Loki kneeled where he stood to feel the ground. Bark, smooth in tight centric circles before growing ridged where the path became wild. _

_They were walking between the trees growing in the natural path. _

_Sigyn took his hand, helped him stand and in one breath whispered, "We're almost to Asgard. The stars are brighter under that tree."_

_She must have realized her error. "Northeast."_

* * *

The map of Midgard had Loki searching his memory for what Africa had resembled on his last encounter. More than a few hundred years before, on one of their many ill-advised trips. Being the one to stand against Thor's whims he had visited Midgard more than he wished.

Stark was not helping his uneasiness with his description of the area. He remembered the danger the swamps and forests held, even for the warriors three with varied hunting experience.

Agents Barton and Romanoff held less of a chance wrecked in that part of Midgard. The darkest heart of Africa according to Stark's obscure reference. Whatever mortal had walked those forests and lived to write a novel held Loki's fleeting respect.

Stark continued his process. "We lost the signal there," his finger hovered over the large, table sized map which they had all huddled around. Loki had the perfect view from the damned wheelchair Thor insisted on trapping him.

JARVIS was no friend in that matter. Loki scowled at the ceiling momentarily losing the flow of conversation. Rogers was saying something. **_Must not have been important_****.**

Loki focused on what Bruce had interrupted to say. "We lost it over the gulf of Guinea according to GPS. Heading south east, they most likely landed in Gabon or just east of there. The flight speeds and recordings from the radio signal loss are too few to narrow it down."

It did not make sense why Dr. Williams and Pepper Potts was present, since as of yet they hadn't spoken up from the end of the table looking at the map of continents. Bruce went on about coordinates and possibly getting SHIELD to fly over, but that was shot down, ironically enough. Rogers shook his head. "SHIELD can't take any aircraft over that location. They made that order a few months ago."

"Who knows about that? Exactly?"

Pepper Potts finally sighed and levelled a glare at Stark. "Tony this is one rule I don't think you can break."

"No, I mean, was it announced… to any sort of specific carrier?"

"The only one in that area…" Rogers paused and it seemed to dawn on him what Stark looked so smug about.

Bruce's face was twisted with confusion. "Am I missing something?"

Dr. Williams nodded and meekly said, "Helicarrier Iliad was the only one in that area. It was announced on every departmental notice and system. They had to stay there until further instruction. Some went on leave."

"So it was talked about?" Stark became serious, keeping his eyes locked with Rogers.

Meekly, "Yes, it was talked about for a while. Especially in medical."

Loki sat straight, and having not moved for the better part of an hour it garnered notice by everyone. Thor was the only one not to turn. "He is wiser than I believed." He spoke about patient X. Aric.

Cassie looked nauseous, her cheeks flushed. "I said he could be aware of more than we think, he may have overheard some gossip surrounding the order. Meaning-"

"He knew if anything happened we couldn't launch a rescue in that area." Steve punctuated his anger with a punch to the table. It cracked. From what Loki could see Stark ignored the further destruction of his property.

"What's the area like?"

Banners' hung head snapped up, and he rubbed his eyes. "Not good. Pitch black at night. Temperatures reaching above a hundred degrees Fahrenheit during the day at this time of year. Local predators, tigers mostly. That's not the problem."

From what Loki remembered of Tigers they were not the friendliest of companions. Agents Barton and Romanoff would have difficulty but would survive an encounter.

"Not a lot of villages in those areas this time of year, many of them are nomadic. Traveling upriver. With the flight controls offline, Clint would have aimed for the closest land and put down there. Leaves them close to the shore. Not many places to land aircraft except for a few. We can start scanning there. They have to get to an area we can fly in. Local authorities may have already been alerted to the Quinjet landing, and they won't be happy about it. We need communication more than anything." Banners power of observation were unique. He knew the most likely places Clint would touch down if he had that much control, but had planned other locations where they might have had no choice but to land. He began outlining those in red on the map, and the green x indicators were the safest to land.

Dr. Williams made a sound almost like she couldn't breathe. "I like that we're getting somewhere here guys, but am I the only one remembering patient X might have taken down the jet to get those two alone in an area we can't reach?"

"It is bothersome." Thor agreed. "We need a way to speak with them, as Banner said."

"Can't they… ? Rig up some sort of radio from the cockpit? Clint would know how to do that more than anyone." Pepper uneasily ventured, eyes still caught on the map.

Stark made a wounded sound. "Since _I'm_ not there… yeah he would. I taught Romanoff some basics on radio transmissions and frequencies… not enough."

Thor shifted his weight, drawing Loki's attention. He was asking something about the terrain, navigation. If they could get in touch they would need to guide them to a different location.

Suddenly Loki had a memory. Their time in that part of Midgard resembled somewhere else… it was vague. "Alder Fields."

Thor rounded on him, more to his sudden speech than reference to the path between realms. Equally dense and hard to navigate, which Thor caught onto his meaning. "The land may have changed since we have visited. If not… that is worrying." Thor of course launched into detail, bringing up that Aric might have the advantage because of his familiarity with the bridge between Asgard and Alfheim.

Rogers shrugged, staring at Loki as if he were again the monster they feared. "Together they might be okay."

"Let's not wait for 'might'. Bruce we got work to do." Stark swept the map from the table, lines crossing his forehead in concentration.

Dr. Williams still looked wrought with worry on her way out, Pepper Potts close behind.

Loki did not worry about the so called Avengers. Only their ability to evade detection by the only man Loki feared could outwit them.

* * *

**A/N: I hope you enjoyed! Next update will be close to January 21st if not on that day.**


	15. Dusty Places

**A/N: WAY later than I promised. Sorry. I am determined to post closer together to, here is a smaller chapter but plot important.**

**Disclaimer: Do not own Marvel.**

* * *

_Dusty Places_

"May I?"

She hadn't spoken. This man was not a villager or SHIELD agent, certainly not a hired assassin by the way his eyes stayed on her. He targeted them both for a different reason, and easily could have killed them while sae in the shadows. Reckless, cocky. Good to know. She could tell from his grin and the glint in his eye while he looked between them.

His smile widened when he figured out Clint hadn't stood because he couldn't. The man's shoulders relaxed but he still kept his distance.

Natasha could use his fear of them to their advantage. It was clear the man had done his research on them, eyes resting on every place she could conceal a weapon.

"May you…?" She raised an eyebrow. Waiting. All sound around them had died off, the birds behind them I the river, branches creaking and snapping, even monkeys howling ceased as soon as the firelight hit their little visitor.

Clint kept silent. Natasha guessed he was assessing their options like she would.

Hopefully he came to the same conclusion; this man was not there to kill them, yet.

Did not mean they couldn't push him into trying.

"You have manners, even for a hired murderer."

"So you know about me."

She did not say anything else instead took a chance and turned her back to sit by the fire again. Clint faced the man, and flashed Natasha a warning glance.

"We are much the same-"

"If this is the part you tell me we're not so different, blah blah and try to get me on your side, even the KGB lost that battle. Save it, cowboy. Why are you really here?" This little chat acting as distraction from something was likely, but since they had no information on what was happening with the outside world, not until the radio was finished, they were stuck. Blind.

Clint remained silent, his unsaid agreement for Natasha to take the lead. He was looking around, keeping a sharp eye on anyone who could ambush them.

Maybe this stranger wasn't the leader?

"Intelligence is not your best asset, Ms. Romanoff."

"Oh, sure, my information is. I see. Tony is an adrenaline junkie, Uh, Sam is a good guy I guess, oh and Bruce? Don't get him drunk unless you want to suddenly be arm wrestling the Hulk."

"And the two Asgardians you have locked in that tower?"

Natasha didn't let her mask slip, staying amused but alert. "Ah, so that's your play. I hope you really aren't that moronic. Thor is in Mexico, and we sent his brother back home. Tony decided it was too much hassle keeping a sociopath in reach of his expensive scotch."

Is flash of anger was gone before she stopped talking. Suddenly he grinned.

Clint made no noise, Natasha assumed that was good.

"Lying is not your best option."

* * *

_Their buildings, their dead littering the path he was dreading to walk became a distraction from the pain. Unbearable in its invisibility from his grasp, residing in the back of his mind like an itch as big as the void itself. _

_Clenching his head did nothing but make his hands bleed from futility. _

_He stood in the garden of corpses the Chitauri- himself- cut down…_

_"__Hey,"_

This soft voice pushed his mind out of the nightmare, a person sitting near the window in shadows. Loki rolled over with hand over his eyes, not attempting to rub raw the images of the dead from his eyes.

_"__Almost look innocent in your sleep."_

"Romanoff. What a pleasure." He turned his back on him. Let her kill him, he was too tired to fight back if she dared. Then the smell hit him, as if the window were open to waft through blood and the smell of putrid bone. "Who was the poor mortal?"

_"__Who?"_ Her tone sceptical, Loki turned back over to see one of her delicate eyebrows raised.

"That mixture of blood and fear scenting your hair." Along with wood, dewy moss, men's cologne. Things he shouldn't have been able to smell from such distance, as if these odours had been hibernating in his sensory system since he had been born. Loki could not get rid of them. He could not detect the subtle cleaning product Cassandra used, or the medical grade detergent usually scenting the bedclothes.

Only forest.

"This is a dream." The woodsy smoke wafted as she walked closer, hands resting on the rail lining the right side of his bed.

Romanoff grinned, _"You slept for a while at least."_

_"__Have you?"_ gruff and weary, speaking behind Loki. When he looked, none but himself and Romanoff were in the room. The shadows were silent as always, crickets chirping and something whooshed from above in the bow of branches.

Trees ascending above, in the middle of the medical floor. Loki blinked, but did not move to escape as he would have wanted. Another blink changed the scene altogether. Gone was the equipment and Cassandra's desk laden with misplaced papers and files.

He had awoken into a glen of bushes and arching trees full of leaves and rust coloured sunlight.

Romanoff had exchanged the chair for a log pulled towards a small fire. Loki looked down, this body was not his. SHIELD issued clothing and a sharp pain in his back kept his attention until he felt the urge to speak.

_"__Toss me that pack." _The oddness of these words pulled through what felt like wet foam. They were clogged with only intention and the back echo reminding Loki of speech in some cave.

**_Barton_**. These were his words spooking the birds in the trees and interrupting Romanoff's even breathing. The crackle of the fire sounded menacing.

This should not have been possible. The mind link, between Barton and himself should have been strained beyond repair. The sceptre was gone. Loki had escaped from the Chitauri long enough… that the link… distress. Barton was distressed.

So was Loki, he realized, once the possibility saturated his mind enough to make sense of the sudden connection. The link thrives off strong negative emotion. Fear, loss of control, rage… and Loki's mind was vulnerable still.

It began to disintegrate like sand in water, Loki could only wonder _why_. Why now? Barton and Romanoff began to speak quietly. Water thundered behind him. No, behind _Barton_. Rapids rushing a long way off to split themselves on rocks.

He could hear singing.

Barton began drifting, falling asleep. Loki strained to stay of his own volition, communicate on some level with the Black Widow. The Avengers _needed to know_.

Romanoff was playing with something or working with it Loki did not know. Barton's mind began making no sense. The singing rang in their ears, echoing into an abyss that should have sucked them both in. It was empty but warm, a silent wish to _stay_ present.

Jerking away a band snapped in his mind and Loki was launched into the putrid smell of cleaning product and linen.

Paperwork fell to the floor; Pepper Potts was at his side one hand on the last piece of paper and the other on the bedrail. "Loki…?" She was dressed in a suit with a flower blouse, hair pinned up in a bun.

Loki did not care for the woman, but did not want to offend. "Banner."

"Why do you need Bruce?" She was standing at this, papers forgotten under the heel of her shoes.

"I may have found Barton and Romanoff."

* * *

Chaos did not come close to the commotion they made. Perhaps they'd forgotten Loki was unstable and had once tried to murder them all. Questions rained down rapid and loud. Thor called down a torrential rain to halt the inquiries long enough for Loki to answer.

"Our minds momentarily linked."

Tony, for once, had been the only silent person of the party. He had sat in the back of his own lab swilling whatever dark liquor he fancied lately. Now his voice was the most serious, almost suspicious. "You mean… mind control?"

Loki witnessed another bolt of lightning flash outside the window. "Not of my brothers doing." Thor and all his protectiveness irked Loki but he let it slide. More pressing matters and the urge to retrain himself from losing the small amount of control he held prompted Loki to focus.

Loki shook his head, exasperated. "I did not realize at first. Once I had… I… heard enormous waterfalls. Rapids."

Immediately Tony went to the map. "How wide was the river?"

"I did not see. Barton could not move nor could I have made him. I was merely a spectator."

"Any other landmarks?" Banner pulled up a holographic map overtop the lab's large bench table. JARVS magnified the spots recorded rapids sat along the Congo. He narrowed down the most likely spot they would have landed.

"There was singing."

"Villages near there?" Rogers flawlessly took Stark's empty glass when he handed it off.

Loki narrowed his eyes. Tony pointed to a spot on the map.

"Too small to see. There's a town with a small commercial district three miles south. If they can get there, they can get to the border so the rest of us could go in by foot."

"Would they detect the suit?" Tony ventured while the rest of them looked at the map. He looked shocked he hadn't wondered this himself.

"Likely… Gabon is a no fly zone. I wouldn't risk it." Rogers huffed and fell into a chair, hand scraping over his face.

Romanoff had helped him. All of them at one point whether they'd asked or not.

Loki prided himself on not asking, and so for the first time he could remember, offered information freely.

"The sun hadn't set."

"Loki," Thor kneeled beside the wheelchair Pepper had carted him there in. "You are too weak. You may want to help-"

"-This choice isn't mine."

Loki briefly thought of keeping silent. What good would it be to strain what little sanity he had left? Which was his point. His mind could not survive much longer, the Chitauri had eroded it with so many lies there were hardly any more truths than the ones Loki imagined.

One truth he could pretend to have. A future beyond madness. This was a way to cultivate that.

Thor kept his eyes on Loki's, reflecting his own concern. "You have been punished enough."

"Not nearly." His voice confident yet as Loki realized the gravity of his decision his body trembled. "The bond is weak."

Tony chuckled nervously. "Whatever you two are conspiring why don't you share with the class?"

Images coalesced of the past two years, and the only scene Loki could focus on was standing on Stark Tower lording over the destruction and chaos the Chitauri had wrought. He remembered thinking it was irreversible, and when Thor pleaded with him to stop the madness, a small tear had escaped. The last of his will and the beginning of the Chitauri's renewed anger.

It only now bled through the bond between Clint, allowing the archers strength through enough to feed off it. To hold the Chitauri at bay long enough to see his actions clearly.

To ask himself when this had been taken out of his control, when had his intentions been twisted to tightly to never be unwound?

Loki decided to use his sanity to his advantage for as long as he was able. "While I had the sceptre I was able to telepathically control actions through a link. With what remains I may only be able to control words."

"Would Clint be aware?"

Loki's cringe had his teeth grinding painfully. "His anger doesn't concern me."

"Then what's got you looking like a pig ready for slaughter?" Sometimes Loki knew Stark took abstract pleasure from his discomfort. Now was not the time to banter, however, as Banner was already pulling up directions to a safe extraction location.

* * *

A/N: Okie dokie! Not as long as it should be, but I have big plans for the next chapter. We haven't seen the last of Sigyn... Hope you enjoyed! -G


	16. Revelations

**A/N: Let's make a toast to me actually updating the day I said I would.**

**Disclaimer: Owning the Marvel universe and its characters is only a dream, never reality.**

* * *

_Revelations_

_The snap of the bullet entering the gun's chamber pin pointed her targets location. In the dead of night, without the sound of birds chirping or the breeze through the leaves, Natasha was able to listen to only the man hunting her in the bush. Her vantage over the woods was dangerous. If he looked up while passing under, perhaps on a hunch, she would be made. Natasha was many things, faster than a bullet wasn't in her skillset._

_The tree branches swayed in the wind and she grabbed hold of the bark, keeping seated on her precarious perch. The wind blew away any sounds she could use locating him. _

_Suddenly there were footsteps in the leaves below. She did not look down. She'd rather not see the bullet as he fires it. Slowly, the man moves away, out into the fields and the twinkling lights of town beyond. He has lost his target for now, but Natasha knew he would catch up to her again._

* * *

As she knew Aric would, undoubtedly, be following them. In just a few hours day would break, forcing them to move to a more secluded location.

Natasha stood on the riverbank, gauging the distance to the peak of a mountain to the south. The general area and landmarks did nothing to jog her memory of this part of Africa. Even the strong instant coffee she had found in their pack couldn't cure her dull mind. She had feared a concussion, but already a day had passed and still the effects of her headache got neither worse nor better.

Conclusion: she was feeling the stress of her occupation for the first time in years. If she had been alone, she knew it would be different. Looking back to their makeshift camp reminded her of the responsibility of having a temporary partner. Someone to be responsible for. A life that counted on Natasha being at her best.

She pitched the last dregs of coffee into the river and returned the empty cup into her backpack. Clint had been sleeping off the last few pain meds shed found in the kit. While boiling more water in makeshift bowl made of tinfoil over the small fire, Natasha realized Clint was awake and staring at her.

He was not one to blankly stare without some silly or obvious remark. Natasha felt her gut twist, and she swore the man staring at her for a few moments was someone else.

The closest weapon was an empty coffee cup. **_At least my luck is consistent lately._**

* * *

"I do not like this idea."

"You have already consented." Not that Thor's agreement would have stopped him. Loki positioned himself on the couch to await Cassandra's instruction. It was something to be admired of the woman that she hadn't outright shot down this idea of his. Her one concession was that she be present and able to monitor him. He readily met her terms. Only because to attempt a feat of willpower in his current condition would yield poor results and injury.

Her hands shook as she hooked the electrodes to the exposed skin on his arms and neck. She began calibrating the sensors to his body temperature so they could monitor any fluctuations.

"If anything concerns me I will stop you." The hardness of her voice left no room for argument and Loki did not feel like giving one. The repercussions of what he was about to attempt were frightening enough that he needed Cassandra on his side. With Clint's borrowed mental strength waning, Loki nodded to get her moving again.

He well understood her reasoning. Cassandra was a healer, and one who would keep even the vilest criminal alive. Loki counted himself under that umbrella, however broad it was. Cassandra had a good heart; one Loki feared could learn to distrust him if he were to allow it.

He suspected the rest of them already had him condemned, including the two he was now trying to help.

Thor and Banner stood to one side, Stark close beside on a barstool.

Cassandra continued her process and ended with the placement of a small wire into her computer from the main monitor beside the couch where he sat rigid as a knarled tree. So many eyes on him caused his heart to quicken. If the doctor noticed she remained complacent.

Loki agreed the lab was a better place to conduct this experiment, Stark was close in reach to his equipment, and the atmosphere was not as oppressive as the medical floor. "I thought you'd been locked up enough. It was time for a scenery change." Cassandra spoke up when Loki's hands tightened on the side of the couch. He removed his hand quickly.

Head on a pillow Banner had unceremoniously tossed over, Loki stared at the ceiling for the span of a few heartbeats.

"Should your eyes be open?" Cassandra whispered, shuffling the chair closer to press a few buttons on the machine. It began to whir to life. Her computer beeped and a light turned green.

"He is nervous." Thor offered on his way to on a chair opposite, hammer at his feet.

Banner uncrossed his arms. "If it makes you feel better we won't let anything happen."

Loki's eyes were closed before he felt a tug so strong the breath was knocked from his chest. He took a deep breath only to be bathed in the scent of flowers dripping in rainwater. It cleansed his nose of harsh chemical scents mixed with bourbon and leather. The couch. He knew it's where his body lay but he could not feel nor see it now.

A monster now stared at him. A reflection of himself through Clint, a dream of a memory so dense and compact the colours swirled endlessly. There was enough to make it out, a monster with blue skin and tremendous anger. The link between them met and twisted, a mirrored image of their minds.

Loki gripped the edges of the memory, and its vapour hissed away into the dark.

Remembering this was Clint, Loki did not force himself to communicate openly, instead channeling his intentions mentally until the darkness receded, and his eyes opened.

He allowed Barton full control for the time being.

Romanoff faced them. The sun was more muted than when Loki had stumbled on their weak conversation earlier, a lightness had descended over the forest. The position of the stars was undiscernible due to the thick canopy, yet the sunrise washed the horizon in lines of pale yellows and pinks.

Loki's job was to find their bearings, clues to their location. This was his task, and yet he kept being drawn to Romanoff, concerned.

It was Barton. His heart was hammering. Loki heard the echoes in his ears as blood pumped furiously. His concern for Nat… Romanoff was astounding. Correctly so, as any doubt Loki had of Clint being unaware of what was happening vanished. Loki concentrated on Romanoff; his hearing was limited to Barton's range of frequency but he was positive she was muttering to herself. Too late did he remember Barton's partial deafness her words were gone.

Now was the time.

Pushing Barton's conscious away was hard enough, but to lessen the mental link to a degree where Loki could control the words cracked his skull as if it had bounced off a rock.

Her eyes locked on his, and something aggressive passed over her face and settled in her eyes, leaving her mouth set in a hard line. She gripped a cup in her hands.

"Romanoff." Either the use of surname or gravity of tone gave it away before he could explain. Suddenly Loki was thrown into dizziness and his eyes met with the soil on the ground. Barton's body could not take the strain for long. He was strong- as realized when the pounding got louder, heart beating out a solid rhythm of anger and resentment Loki could feel knifing his bones.

Barton was not happy being a puppet again.

"Clint?" Unsure but not enough to stop her pulling Barton's body to rest again on the log. Her hands kept their distance after that, a respectful one. Her fingers itched close to her bag where Loki was sure a weapon rested.

"Is this another trick?" Her head swerved around, suspecting company? Her quick assessment brought her eyes back to Barton. "Another way to make me listen?"

Had she calculated his unusual manner as a warning? No, for her eyes were sceptical and… afraid.

"I prefer Loki."

Sharply, "How?" She stood and took a step back so fast sand flew into the fire, allowing it to die out a little before blowing into full force with the next breeze.

"Ways you know little about. Your friends are persistent."

Romanoff paced once or twice and then sat. "Tell me what you came to tell me, and if there is any permanent damage to Clint for this, you will wish you were back with the Chitauri."

Loki stuck himself between silence and the want to break the link. He knew neither option would accomplish what he did this for, and so he detailed the plan as best he could with Barton metaphorically bashing their heads together.

Romanoff visibly paled, the circles under her eyes more pronounced. "Yes, that's a _great_ plan."

Loki didn't appreciate her tone much and mistakenly commented on it. "Sarcasm will not help."

"Apparently sarcasm falls out of my mouth like stupidity falls out of yours. If I were able to move him I _would_."

Loki knew what she spoke of, the injuries to his lower back he could feel through the mental bond. Half the intensity panged as if there were a spear through the lower half of his body. "I will be able to heal him partially. Head south, do what I've said."

Concentrating all of his concentration on healing Barton began dulling the edges of the link, melting his vision so it blurred Romanoff's face as it came closer.

"Loki?" She did not come closer, stalled at the edge of his periphery. Controlling his eye movements had been lost; Barton was strong despite his injuries. Loki allowed small bits of himself to fade in and out. Floating on her diminished voice as if he had broken away and with every word he drifted further.

Electricity palmed his skin as if there was a great thunderstorm on the horizon, and the birds singing in the air were unaware of the danger approaching. Another jolt hit him hard, his body twisted as if he had hit a wall. Nothing substantial came close to the ether he floated in. the link had been severed by something; he knew that by the strands of conversation hanging on the edge of his memory.

He had been keeping detail of his heartbeat, a way to regulate his and Barton's breathing to strengthen the rhythm of their mental link. The slowing of that heartbeat was the only indication something had gone wrong.

Another jolt of electricity, and Loki wasn't aware his heartbeat stopped.

* * *

**A/N: So, next chapter we see Sigyn again…. And Natasha being more of a badass. Hope you enjoyed! -G**


	17. Short Stop

**A/N: This is a filler chapter, life is busy and whatnot. Natasha being a bad ass and Sigyn truly returning will be the next chapter. Hope you like it anyway! **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Marvel, sadly. **

* * *

_Short Stop_

_"Do not turn away from me!"_

_The wind did nothing to cut down her rage, blowing only her clothes away. The power she had thrown into her scream almost shook her body to the ground._

_"I have never turned away from you."_

_Loki had been sitting on a tall tree root waiting for them to pass. In that time he slowly became aware this was the field and grouping of tress they had emerged from as children. He and Sigyn had made it through the passage all those years ago, it did not seem right for Sigyn to leave that way._

_He had followed the small convoy, among their party the Lady Sif who now stood silent beside Sigyn either in solidarity or duty._

_Sif kept Sigyn standing upright through her accusations. "We survived those days together. Starving and nearly lost."_

_He threw all the rage back in her face so fast he found himself standing, propelled by sincerity and something unidentifiable burning in his gut. "You have chosen to leave!"_

_"I chose to leave then, too. I… chose to help. Why will you not do the same now? Allow me peace in my decision."_

_"I will never accept this, Sigyn."_

_Sif stepped between them, as a ghost emerging from the shadows when Loki nearly forgot she had been there. The shock and absolute confusion in her eyes made Loki consider her next words. "Quiet that tongue, Loki. Sigyn does this admirably, and we shall not judge her for this."_

_Sigyn took a breath as deep as the pit Loki felt taking root in his chest. "This is still my choice. Like all my choices I am sure this is a sound one."_

_"Sigyn…" Neither of them knew this was as close to begging as Loki Odinson would get. She closed her eyes and committed him to memory, even knowing she would never forget her time in Asgard or the company she'd be without._

_Lady Sif accompanied Sigyn through the portal to Alfheim, the edges of their billowing cloaks as black as ravens against the washed out colours of autumn brush._

_Theoric and the entourage, seeing the flash of rainbow dew drops coalesce on the trees, trod the path to where Loki still stood. They had hung back more from respect for the prince than their new acquisition._

_"Prince Loki,"_

_"Do not presume your authority to speak with me on this matter. I came only to bid farewell to my-"_

_"-Do no presume me lame, then. Dear friend I sense does not cover that relationship. For that I am truly sorry." Theoric for all of his assistance the past months kept a calm smile on his face, even knowing where his new wife's devotion still laid._

_Loki kept a blank face. "Apologies do not erase everything. Not truth," A shimmer of emotion crossed his face, eyebrows drawn together and forcefully pulled apart as she turned away, "Or lies."_

_The truth was not as simple; it never had been to Loki. His self-made cage of lies kept the truth where it belonged, far away and harmless to himself and others. Creating your own truth was much easier to deal with at night, when the screams of long ago silenced prisoners were but echoes._

_Loki awoke to one such echo between his chest and sheets, yet throwing them off only served to experience the chill of the empty room he lay in._

_From memory it was the first night Loki had been left to rest without a guard._

_Now only the shrill echoes of Sigyn's scream kept him company._

* * *

_"_I am never far,_" It was a memory, but still lowered Loki's laboured breathing. That memory was good, and Loki found he could breathe again if he latched onto it._

_The damned metal contraption Loki had been forced into of late sat at his right side. Knowing there was no way around the wheelchair, Loki slowly sat down into it. It was not the ideal situation, albeit better than making a fool of himself trying to walk._

_His physical strength was deteriorating along with his mental capacities._

_To say it was worrying would serve no purpose, and so Loki knew his answer whenever someone asked._

_Besides Pepper Potts. That lady seemed genuine in her concern. Loki did not comprehend why; as he had just the year before thrown the man she loved out of a window presumably to his death. Still, the woman was insistent. Perhaps she did not trust him to be alone with his own thoughts for too long._

_He seemed to find Lady Pepper in the hall every morning. This was the first morning there was no on in the hall waiting. Not even Barton._

_Loki rolled himself, difficultly, over to the elevator doors lip._

"Where do you wish to go, Mr Odinson?"

_JARVIS, Stark's annoying, what had he called him? Artificial Intelligence._

_"I… find I have need of food." It was more of a shock to Loki than the lack of security. For once he had an appetite, and he could not remember the last he ate. The last time he enjoyed the thought of partaking in something so simple._

_The doors dinged, opening to display the kitchen in a dim light of sunrise. The clouds were covering most of the sky, enough to give what lights on the buildings below a subtle glow. Mortals waking from their night._

_One more apparently had never gone to bed, as Stark was stationed at the table with his head resting against the glass window._

_"Reindeer games. Do you drink coffee? Do you know what coffee is?"_

_Loki thanked whoever cared to listen to him these days that he had grown up with Thor, who in their youth spoke a thousand words per minute when elated. Stark seemed to be in the same habit when exhausted, as the bags beneath his eyes indicated._

_"Midgardians did not discover everything."_

_"Well then help yourself. My arms won't listen to me."_

_Loki made his way, really a struggle as his strength was not as it used to be, towards the table. Stark hooked a foot around a chair leg and moved it out of Loki's way. It smacked into the glass._

_Loki raised an eyebrow._

_Stark mirrored the snarky look. "I reinforced it enough to withstand a man being tossed against it."_

_Loki poured coffee for himself from the pot. He eyed a bowl of apples on the table. Suddenly the bowl moved closer and Stark's had retracted. "Promise they're not poison apples."_

_"Yes, that is more my style."_

_Snatching one from the table, Loki took a bite. At first it was too much, but he swallowed it against the bile rising in his throat. Doctor Williams had him on a diet of plain oatmeal the past few weeks, with little variation._

_Suddenly he wished for the loathed oatmeal._

_Seemingly, Stark knew the look on his face, for he got up and went to a cupboard beside the fridge. Loki decided to ignore whatever mundane activity Stark was up to and looked across the city. The view was pleasantly distracting. From that high above other buildings he could see water in the distance, curling around a pier to reflect the weak sunlight._

_Below, cars drove and lights changed direction, mortals following along not knowing the god which they once fled from was paying them such attention._

_Something clacked against the wooden table, Loki turned to see a steaming bowl of plain oatmeal beside his hardly touched apple. Stark tossed a spoon into it, and took his seat again with another mug of coffee._

_"Better eat up before the others get here."_

_Loki's first thought was it was a threat, that if the others arrived he would be forced to leave for some reason unclear to him._

_Stark shrugged and without missing a beat, "They might not want to have breakfast with a drowned kitten."_

_"Felines are good pets."_

_"Not the feral ones."_

_"What's feral?" The elevator dinged, and Rogers came out covered in sweat and Loki hoped he did not get too close. His stomach was already roiling from the richness of the apple. Loki took a spoonful of oatmeal and filled his mouth to plug a bitter retort._

_Stark was more subdued. "Cats. Horribly mean and anti-social."_

_Rogers looked confused as he got a pan out from under a cupboard. When Banner joined, he and Rogers began chatting about tracking Barton and Romanoff down. They were close._

_Pepper Potts joined them, and of course ruined the flow of the morning by bringing specific attention to Loki's presence. Before she came down the stairs from the penthouse where she and Stark shared quarters, the conversation had been going well even thought Loki wasn;t included directly._

_Once without asking Banner refilled Loki's coffee, not even missing a beat talking about beta tracking systems with Stark. As if it was natural to have an old enemy sharing their meal._

_Pepper had good intentions, but the results were anything but. "Oh, Loki, you're here."_

_Loki sensed she was happy he was joining them, but the wording threw everyone sideways into something of an unfocused shadow with them all towering._

_Without knowing how or when Loki was suddenly lying on is back in the middle of a field barren of flowers. Dead grass surrounded for miles around, like no field in the plains he had visited before. Barren of all life, sucking his breath out dangerously fast as if the air was addicted to his presence._

_Attempts to sit up only skewed what he saw into blurs, meshing together with what he knew to be reality. Lady Pepper's face in his peripheral, someone shouting at him._

_Sigyn begging him. No, that was not his reality. That was his past._

_His heart furious with pumping made his limbs numb. Electric shock passed through one side of his chest to the other, as if animating a lifeless body it threw him onto his hands and knees._

_She kneeled before him, hands cradled on the ground and head bowed, as if cupping her hands to catch falling tears. The anguished cries motivated Loki closer to the bent figure. She muttered his name, shrieked his name into the cracked dirt._

Loki!

_If he could protest he would, but his mouth tugged at his words like promised lies. He could no longer bring himself to look, but closing his eyes only brought chaos, bright lights and acquaintances-once-enemies shouting at him. Flying lights irregular and fleeting, causing his mouth to dry and his fingers to tingle._

_He opened his eyes fully, intent on screaming for Sigyn as she screamed for him._

_Her deep eyes met his, and all the thoughts he had managed to piece together shattered so painfully her shriek was the least of his concern._

_His heart had stopped. Nothing beat beneath a hand quick to pat his chest. Still her body drew his eyes, hair was loose around her face; so long it nearly brushed the ground. No blood, no wounds to account for pain so intense she had decided to call out for help._

_He bore no blood, no wound he could feel. Yet the beating in his ears had stopped completely._

_Her back bowed, forehead almost touching the ground in a collapse taking Loki's concern away from his own being. Her body pitched forward and fell to the side, rolling onto her back with eyes vacantly looking to a sky that had never belonged there. It was pristine and clear, detailing scarce clouds while on the ground it was just drought and the expanse of the horizon._

_He could not bring himself to speak her name._

_Not ever again would he let others hear her name come from his pain, as a result of it or its balm. Not the Chitauri, nor Thor or the Allfather with the threat of allowing Sigyn into Asgard once again to bear witness to his execution._

_He closed his eyes against her image, his vision piecing itself together again to see bright lights and hear voice quickly becoming familiar. The drone of a machine beeping steadily beside him..._

"Loki,"

His involuntary flinch rustled a woolen blanket, head on a cushion of cool leather. The ottoman in the lounge where he had all but agreed to this torture.

Banner and Williams stood over him, Lady Pepper behind them speaking fast into a phone. The itch in his arm was the product of an IV connected to a bag he was shocked to see Thor held.

"You're back." Cassandra dropped the paddles, and Loki focused on the two red bruises on his bony chest. Electrocution. Barbaric, but Loki said nothing to the doctor as she tidied up and Thor came into view.

Loki swallowed air, as his mouth remain as dry as the desert he had witnessed Sigyn dying in. "I conveyed the message."

At least not all would die in Aric's wake. Barton and Romanoff would return, and as Loki watched Thor's relief wash his face calm, he knew Sigyn would not stay away for long.

It had felt real, his dream. Time had torn her flesh away, it left him the image of her lying still on the ground. He had been by her side for centuries, and never before had he felt so powerless against the fate he knew would consume her.

It had told him a truth, one that had broken out of his well contained cage of lies. Sigyn was in that field.


	18. Sudden Drop

**A/N: Wow, I have been away for school for a while and I apologize about the late update. Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I own nothing Marvel, I only dream about it from time to time.**

* * *

_Sudden Drop_

_Sigyn went in search of Thor. Loki's outburst still dripped from her skin in plasmatic threads, weighing her limbs down as she marched. Tremors shook her core as she rounded the corner to the private rooms of the team, knowing Thor would likely be entertaining his drinking habits so late into the night._

_Her knuckles stung as she knocked on the door to announce she was about to open it. She was in no mood to wait for a warm welcome._

_"Sigyn," Thor was resting on the bed, balancing Mjolnir on his palm. It dropped into the coiled sheets with a thump._

_Her words frosted the air between them, "I'm leaving."_

_His brows contracted before a slick realization pitted his stomach with acid. He was up gripping her curled fists in his hands. Thor was no fool; he smelled magic as if it were perfumed air. "What has he done?"_

_She lost her words as the last drip of Loki's magic faded, and with it her anger. There lingered a taste of blood on her tongue; it seeped between her teeth. She had to lick it away._

_"I feel useless, Thor. Watching Loki wither like some dying animal."_

_The subject of her saddened eyes sat on the bed, looking at his hands. Big and capable but unable to hold Sigyn as if she were some crying child on the street. They were not children anymore._

_"Tell me your plan, Sigyn." She always had another way, her ability to exhaust every option had always mesmerized Thor. Now, he coveted that skill like a treasured jewel. Wanted to see it on display, capture it for himself._

_He wanted answers in the sea of costs he believed them to be battling._

_He would not cost his brother his life with his ignorance again._

_"I will assist Barton and Romanoff, as only I am able."_

_He had sensed her scheme long before she had finished speaking. "It is forbidden to transport mortals, Heimdall will not allow it." It was the obvious plan to call upon Heimdall and have him spirit the agents home. Odin had nearly taken his head off for bringing Jane to Asgard._

_The bed depressed with Sigyns weight, her fingers tracing Mjolnirs leather wrapped handle. "I say nothing of bringing them here."_

_Thor feared this would be her choice. It bubbled in his chest, and for a second time that day wished they were children once more, dodging consequence and leaving decision to those more experienced._

_Thor felt the same longing in Sigyn. Hers was somehow more tangible than his. There was desperation and sadness holding down her shoulders._

_"What troubles you?"_

_She did not meet his eyes. "I miss my husband; I miss the man I hardly knew."_

_"I am truly sorry he is dead."_

_"So was I. Now, I am glad he does not see who I've become in these short weeks. Thor, I-"_

_"You are scared." It was more a question than statement. Never has he seen Sigyn back down from a fight._

_"Yes. Theoric believed me brave for many things. What I am about to do scares me a great deal."_

_"Tell me what you plan."_

* * *

"You let her do WHAT?" Thor had never witnessed Lady Cassandra angered for anything beyond their injuries. Standing by her desk, ragged and sleepless denounced Thor's assumptions of the doctor. She was quite scary, and reminded Thor of his own mother.

Thus he backed down and let her rant until she was breathless. "What we're you thinking!? When did she leave!?"

"Two days ago."

No one spoke. Lady Cassandra sat down behind her computer and typed, fuming.

"Loki doesn't know?"

"My brother suspects something is wrong. He believes me keeping her whereabouts from him."

Stark made a clicking noise, seemingly amused by the situation. "Well you _are_ lying."

Lady Pepper had joined them not long after Thor's guilty admission. She had heard most of the story. "So, what we need to do is wait."

Everyone looked at her. Thor found himself counted among the confused glances. Before anyone disagreed Rogers spoke up. "I agree with Pepper."

Banner made some type of squealing noise, which only Stark seemed to recognize and put a hand on Banners shoulder, speaking for him, "Bruce would like to disagree."

"Before anyone does anything, Director Fury needs to be updated. We can't stall for long, and patient X is still running around unchecked." Lady Cassandra had a phone in her hand. "Anyone disagree that we need backup?"

No one spoke.

* * *

Deceptively beautiful vistas and sweet flowery smells greeted the morning when all Natasha Romanoff wished for was coffee and a loaded gun. The dangerous terrain became impossible at night, and they'd holed up against a cliff face, vast amounts of clean air above and below them.

Unreachable, for the time being.

She rested against the rock face, legs dangling over the moss fed by dark red soil that left dust prints on her clothes.

Waves of heat escaped the dense forest above the canopy. Natasha watched flocks of exotic birds obscure the rising sun and wispy clouds on the morning breeze float by as if this day was no different than the many others in the amazon.

Except this day held much more than natures daily activities. Natasha settled her eyes on Clint moments before her inner debate; drag him to the extraction point, of which they only knew the general direction? Or Option B, have Clint try to contact Loki again and see if there'd been a better plan devised during the night.

**_No room for sentiment._** This reminder had been repeated at multiple intervals in her life. The most problematic missions lent some emotional leeway, but not enough for her to doubt what to do next. Doubt lead to death. This was the first time in Natasha's long and varied career she did not believe that principle. The idea she was doubting what her life was built on frightened her.

"You trust him?"

Natasha knew he'd been awake for a while, but the crackle in his voice made her turn.

"You don't?"

"C'mon Nat." Clint hooked his arm around a tree pulling himself upright. His eyes were clear of fever, a little colour had returned sometime during the night. "I know that look. You want to trust him."

Trusting the wrong person, the wrong information, she had learned very quick that was like giving a child a gun without the safety on. Not the most desirable gamble.

Natasha envisioned the worst outcome of them trusting Loki for the first time since hearing about the demi god. They would still be in the forest, still be in proximity to this threat from another realm, still be hunted.

They would also be a step closer to safety if they were to trust Loki. The irony made Natasha rethink before deciding.

Clint didn't need her to vocalize her answer. "Well, then. We've been in worse spots."

"No we haven't," The reply was dry as the dirt blowing off the cliff.

He conceded. "No… we haven't."

Suddenly something cracked the sky open, Natasha stopped breathing long enough to forget how shed stood up and turned. Something lit up the sky, ending in a cascade of light not a few miles from their location.

Clint was talking but it was as if she was listening from the bottom of a muddy pool.

She was positive it was that bridge; the same light shed seen many times before. Electricity crackled off her skin like water, and she felt a hand on her arm.

Clint had managed to stand. "Nat, he would have seen that." It was often they were on the same page, seemingly not needing to confer. Patient X would be heading for that location.

Whoever had landed there was in danger.

* * *

"You know I can hear you…" A weak reprimand considering her situation. Straddling a grassy slope with nothing to hold onto but the few twigs broken free of the soil his voice had been a soft ring, as light as the feathery wind lifting her into consciousness. "How did you find me?"

Fingers felt the grooves in the ground, marks of the Bifrost. Hope sprang into life around her on the scent of exotic dewy flowers and deep rustles of jungle and in the throaty monkey hoots bringing the laugh to her lips. Such childish happiness was not long lasting as the sounds became threatening, hisses and growls echoing through the trees and mountains behind her.

Sigyn rocked back on her knees, head bent up to the sky. She opened her eyes to cloudless sky bright against black dots clouding her vision and balms against fear.

His voice brought that fear back. "_I remembered what you fight for,_" A breath and a heartbeat, "_Fate_." The years of war and chaos had carved into her core a healthy amount of caution when it came to Fate and what the Norns had planned for them all. Now the feeling was coming back from far away memories, those obscure familiar tones.

"_You are stronger than him but do not do _this_._"

Him. **_Aric, the beggar turned mercenary. _**The man who had planned the death of Asgard through its princes.

"What else is there?" To protect a realm, these mortals would lose, and die. How could she do no less to help?

Aric had taken too much from her, from them all. As if her decision had been voiced to the Norns themselves, the sun shone brighter as his words ebbed away and blinked from the darkness obscuring her vision. The sun made the waters below sparkle, the thin rivers carving out monstrous waterfalls she could hear thundering somewhere in the distance.

"These are your friends, Loki." She felt his flinch at the implication through the stringy bonds lining their minds. She pulled her emotions back, knowing the empathic traits of a magical bond to be strong.

He spoke again, and this time her gasp was audible on hearing his clarity. "_Lethally loyal, my father once said of you. Norns know to what extent… and to what end we will meet following your loyalty._" No trail of wickedness or feverish craze tinted his words, which brought tears to her eyes.

"Feeling poetic?" Her dry laugh fell short of her intention. There was no point to hiding her true thoughts, the link only carried raw consciousness. She intended to stay on this path.

Loki relayed her intentions. "_Still trying to save me. Do you think it's working_?"

"You're still alive, aren't you?"

He spoke as if they were alone on that cliff and no madness of the mind separated them for that second. "_You are more important."_

**_Aric paying for his deeds is important. _**Even the beauty surrounding her could not take away the horror she imagined doing to Aric when she found him.

A spark in her minds eyes stopped her thinking. It was a foreign magic tying itself to her through the bond. His words became dark, a cavernous echo in her head sensing the turn of her mind as she looked across the land. "_Leave cruelty to me, Sigyn._"

"You weren't cruel." In the past somewhere between war and grief were memories of a tame mischievous boy always with a trick to show. No tricks now, only bland violence and destruction, tameness of its own. Aric was the cruel one.

Her throat tightened, legs trembling at the notion of Loki comparing himself to that monster lurking somewhere beyond her sight. Loki may have been unpleasant under the Chitauri's control, but Aric was under no such influence. No such disillusion to twist his mind.

"_Do not stay long._"

At once, those words blew away with the wind to graze her cheek.

Sigyn was left bereft with nothing but the sharp edges of the jungle.

* * *

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed! I combined two chapters an as apology for being late with the updates. This story still has many chapters to go :) -G**


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